In her article, Kalpana Gupta takes the reader through the sacred and historical roots of mindfulness and how globalization has taken its ideas to the Western world. Cultures from the East have been practicing mindfulness for centuries through Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It began as a spiritual practice that was intended to guide an individual’s way of life. According to Gupta, mindfulness and meditation are “philosophically, spiritually, culturally, and religiously embedded” (Gupta, 2019). The author defines meditation as the “state of ultimate consciousness” and reminds readers that it originated as and still has a spiritual purpose in Eastern cultures. With globalization, popularity of mindfulness has spread as a technique to reduce stress and anxiety. “More recently, Western culture, specifically the United States, has been infatuated with mindfulness and meditation as a means to reduce stress, anxiety, and improve focus and attention” (Gupta, 2019). She encourages those who use mindfulness to familiarize themselves with the history of this practice if they are to imbed it into academics.
Many insightful comments on this topic jumped out at me while reading this article. I knew that mindfulness, yoga, and mediation had a long history but did not know exactly where they started, how they started, or who started them. Gupta mentions that according to Murphy et al. (1997), scriptures from pre-Aryan civilizations are the first to mention meditation. I was also surprised to learn that different branches of Buddhism are meant to lead an individual to different forms of enlightenment. Some branches focus on a still and relaxed mind while others aim to target alertness. Through this article, I was able to gain more insight to the history behind mindfulness.
Gupta, K. (2019). The sacred to the secular: Using mindfulness and meditation as instructional methods in academia. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, (161), 21–32. doi: 10.1002/ace.20308
My Content Resources 