Mindfulness
B Y D R T E E N A B H A R TI
Course Outline
❖ Introduction to mindfulness-Buddhist Philosophy
❖ Emerging science of mindfulness
❖ Mindful Managers: Working with thoughts
❖ Anxiety, Resilience and Managing workplace
❖ The Internal Landscape - Working with emotions: Noticing, Processing and Cultivating positive emotions
❖ Mindful connection and communication
❖ Mindfulness in Management decision-making
❖ Mindful Coping with change, loss, and impermanence
❖ Balancing time and priorities
❖ Integrating Mindfulness - bringing your life into your practice
END-TRIMESTER EXAM 30
Assignments 30
Class Participation 10
Evaluation
components Case Discussion & Analysis 15
Class Exercise 15
Activity:
◦ Form Group of 4-5
people/members
◦ Now discuss, what is mindfulness
for you?
◦ Reach a consensus on What is
Mindfulness?
What is Mindfulness?
Michael Bunting defined mindfulness as “maintaining an open-hearted
awareness of our thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations and environment
in the present moment”.
It is paying attention in the present moment purposefully, warm-heartedly and
non-judgementally. It is experiencing and accepting the present moment as it
really is — not how we want it to be, think it should be or perceive it to be, but
as it really is.”
Mindfulness is “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the
present moment, and non-judgmentally”. - Kabat-Zinn (1994;
Coined the term Mindfulness)
Let's do a simple
Exercise.
1. Touch your index finger and thumb together.
2.Explore your thumb with the tip of your index
finger. What do you notice? Roughness?
Smoothness? Heat? Coolness? Dryness? Are there
thoughts, memories that arise as you continue to
explore your thumb?
3.Now explore your index finger with your thumb.
Is it the same? Rougher? Smoother? Hotter?
Cooler? Drier? New thoughts or memories?
Instruction: Do this while eyes are closed.
What did you
experience?
Consider how you react when you don’t think you are good at
something: say solving brain teasers. When you are presented with a brain
teaser, what do you do? Do you tell yourself, “I am not good at this,” or “I
am going to look stupid”? Does this distract you from paying attention to
Let’s Compare
working on the puzzle?
How it might be different if you had an open attitude with no concern or
our default judgment about performance, just a curiosity about how working on the brain
teaser might be? What if you directly experienced the process as it
mode with a unfolded—the challenges, anxieties, insights, accomplishments—
acknowledging each thought or feeling and accepting it without needing to
mindful state. figure it out or explore it further.
If you do this with some regularity, you start to see the habitual patterns that
lead you to react automatically in negative or unhelpful ways and create
stress. By observing instead of reacting, you develop a broader perspective
and can choose a more effective response.
So, What is
Mindfulness?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A
WJUv1lH-Ng&t=18s
This brings me to another aspect:
Mindfulness and Budhhism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R
A70cQmkZZA
Buddha: The Eightfold Path
THE EIGHTFOLD PATH IS OFTEN DIVIDED INTO THE THREE
CATEGORIES:
❖ wisdom (right view/understanding, right intention),
❖ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood)
❖mental cultivation (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration).
❖The Eightfold Path is a practical and systematic way out of ignorance,
eliminating dukkha from our minds and our lifestyle through mindful
thoughts and actions. It is presented as a whole system, but the three paths
associated with the area of mental cultivation are particularly relevant to the
happiness that we can find in equanimity, or peace of mind.
❖Buddhist teachings originate from over 2,500 years ago, they still apply
today in how to deal with pain.
Equanimity: Peace of Mind & Happiness
In Buddhism, equanimity, or peace of mind, is achieved by detaching oneself from the
cycle of craving that produces dukkha. So by achieving a mental state where you can
detach from all the passions, needs and wants of life, you free yourself and achieve a
state of transcendent bliss and well-being.
As described in the first verse of the Dhammapada, for Buddha, mental dysfunction
begins in the mind. The Buddha encouraged his followers to pursue “tranquility” and
“insight” as the mental qualities that would lead to Nirvana, the Ultimate Reality. As
mentioned earlier, the Eightfold Path as a whole is said to help one achieve these
qualities. In particular, the areas of mental cultivation, which include right effort, right
mindfulness and right concentration, are the mental skills and tools used for achieving
happiness.
Buddhist Philosophy
contd…
The idea that changing one’s thoughts can change one’s reality is a cornerstone
of Buddha’s philosophy.
Buddha emphatically claims that “Your states (of existence) originate in your
mind. Mind is their chief, and they are created by the mind.
If you speak or act with a pure mind, happiness will follow you like your own
shadow.
“Mindfulness” was one of the eightfold paths espoused by Buddhism, a
technique that originated in yogic meditation and that involves the ability to
focus ones attention on the present moment. And of course the eightfold path
represented the royal road to overcoming suffering and finding genuine (lasting)
happiness.
Mindfulness is a technique extracted from Buddhism where one tries to
notice present thoughts, feeling and sensations without judgement. The aim
is to create a state of “bare awareness”.
Mindfulness and Buddha
contd…
According to the Buddha, the only way to eradicate human anguish or
suffering is to remove the attachment (upadana) or craving (trsna) of
our mind toward various things or concepts to which we are attached.
Mindfulness meditation is one of the most important elements of the
Buddha’s “noble eightfold path” to end suffering and instill wisdom.
Principally, mindfulness in Buddhist teaching is viewed as a fundamental
pathway through which to become aware of the causes and sources of
suffering and to attain enlightenment or an awakening, thereby enabling
the individual to be less egoistical and obtain insight into the state of “no
self.” According to Buddhism and its Chan School, when an individual
has truly acquired complete enlightenment or insight into the “non-self,”
they will have achieved full freedom of the mind.
The Buddhist concept “sati” was first translated as “mindfulness”
from the Pali word by a British scholar of the language, Thomas William
Rhys Davids, in 1881, based on his understanding of
the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, which stresses how its practice is to watch
how things “come to be” and how they “pass away” (Gethin, 2011).
Activity
Form a group of 4
Share any major
setback/suffering/failure with the
members of your group.
CONTD…
Buddha compared out of control emotions to a wild
horse. They tend to kidnap us and take us away from a
full involvement in the present moment and hence,
emphasised on mindfulness.
Buddhism is a philosophy and practice that is
extremely concerned with the mind and its various
delusions, misunderstandings and cravings but,
happily for us, sees a way out through higher
consciousness and mindful practice.
Let’s meditate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnVCadMo3qI
THANK YOU
