Mindfulness

Contemplative practices have been integral to following the path to wisdom and self-knowledge in virtually all of the world’s great wisdom traditions for thousands of years. Mindfulness-based meditative practices are the most well known and widely adopted in the world today largely based on a burgeoning evidence-base in the last 25 years such that now there are over 10 new articles being published in peer reviewed scientific journals on a daily basis.

Mindfulness can be described as both a form of meditation (the formal practice of mindfulness) and a way of living in the present moment (the informal practice). It is aimed at increasing awareness and involves the training of attention and the attitude with which we pay attention. Interestingly, this single skill has a multitude of applications such as its therapeutic efficacy for a wide range of clinical conditions including depression, anxiety, chronic pain and coping with chronic illness, as well as practical applications including improving academic and sporting performance, decision making, communication, compassion and memory. To use a metaphor, you could say that using mindfulness is like finding the light switch and turning on the lights in a dark room. This single act makes it possible for us to do whatever else it is that we need to do. It all flows from that. From the perspective of wisdom traditions, however, these practical benefits are useful but they are secondary to these contemplative practices’ deeper spiritual aims and the pursuit of self-knowledge.

The School of Philosophy (SoP) first started teaching ‘awareness exercises’ to support the inquiry into philosophy and wisdom back in the 1950s before mindfulness was popular or the word ‘mindfulness’ was in common usage. Such exercises are taught from the first night of the introductory philosophy course because to wake up we first have to become aware of how unaware and distracted we tend to be, especially in this fast-paced, information-overloaded world where we are literally being driven to distraction. A key thing that helps us to realise the fuller potential of these mindfulness-based practices is that their practical aspects are supported with weekly discussion of insights gained over millennia from the world’s great wisdom traditions. Because mindfulness and other meditative practices are so central to the growth of wisdom, they are not only provided and practiced throughout the weekly classes in the SoP but also through short courses, seminars and workshops.