Shonin, E., Van Gordon W., & Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Teaching ethics in mindfulness-based interventions. Mindfulness, 6, 1491-1493. (original) (raw)
We read with interest the recent commentary paper by Baer (2015). Although Baer used different terminology, her paper essentially discussed the different approaches adopted by what have been termed first-generation mindfulness-based interventions (FG-MBIs) and second-generation mindfulness- based interventions (SG-MBIs) in terms of how they conceptualise and teach ethics. The key difference between these two approaches is that compared to FG-MBIs (such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy), SG-MBIs (such as meditation awareness training [MAT]) tend to explicitly teach a greater range of meditative and/or spiritual practices (i.e., in addition to mindfulness) and tend to be more overtly spiritual in nature (Van Gordon et al. 2015a). Although Baer admittedly made a number of valid and interesting points concerning the most appropriate means of teaching ethics in MBIs, her lack of support for the SG-MBI approach was based on a number of oversights and factual inaccuracies that we would like to challenge and correct:
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We read with interest the recent commentary paper by Baer (2015). Although Baer used different terminology, her paper essentially discussed the different approaches adopted by what have been termed first-generation mindfulness-based interventions (FG-MBIs) and second-generation mindfulness- based interventions (SG-MBIs) in terms of how they conceptualise and teach ethics. The key difference between these two approaches is that compared to FG-MBIs (such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy), SG-MBIs (such as meditation awareness training [MAT]) tend to explicitly teach a greater range of meditative and/or spiritual practices (i.e., in addition to mindfulness) and tend to be more overtly spiritual in nature (Van Gordon et al. 2015a). Although Baer admittedly made a number of valid and interesting points concerning the most appropriate means of teaching ethics in MBIs, her lack of support for the SG-MBI approach was based on a number of oversights and factual inaccuracies that we would like to challenge and correct.
A philosophical perspective on mindfulness practice – connecting the educational, therapeutic and morally transformational aspects of contemporary mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) – is outlined as a preliminary to the critique of the emergence of the commodified and marketized ‘McMindfulness’ aspects of contemporary practice. The links between education, mindfulness practice and therapeutic transformation are explored, and this is followed by an analysis of the ‘McDonaldization’ process which has led to the ethical and educational shortcomings of the McMindfulness models of practice. Contemporary mindfulness-based applications – in general orthodox mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)/mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programmes but, in particular, in relation to education and workplace training practices – are criticized against the background of the McDonaldization policy analysis. In conclusion, it is suggested that the key educational and moral components – located squarely within the affective domain of education concerned with moral, personal and spiritual development – of MBIs related to perspectives on personal/social transformation need to be foregrounded in order to avoid the limitations and weaknesses of McMindfulness phenomena. Recommendations are made for grounding all aspects of mindfulness practice firmly in Buddhist ethical foundations to ensure that MBIs are able to achieve the full objectives of the transformative project of the dharma.
Implicit and Explicit Ethics in Mindfulness-Based Programs in a Broader Context
Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness, 2018
MBSR was designed to not have any explicit ethical teachings, and continues to be led in this manner. Critics argue that without explicit ethical components, the teaching of mindfulness-based interventions and programs may offer symptom relief but will not address the root individual and social ills that are causing symptoms such as stress, depression, and anxiety. The concern is mindfulness practices will merely inoculate bankers to a destructive form of capitalism or train snipers to kill mindfully. One strand of response argues that there is an implicit, rather than an overt, ethical teaching coupled with mindfulness practice. This debate can be framed as two contrasting models of how to view human nature and ethics. MBSR proponents propose an innate model of human goodness, such that mindfulness practices can allow the individual to discover their innate tendencies towards ethical behavior. Critics of this model argue for a picture of human nature where individuals need to be explicitly taught proper ethical conduct. Framed in this light, the current debate on explicit ethics in mindfulness programs rehashes an old debate within the Buddhist tradition and without. Historically, the Buddhist debates on tathāgatagarbha have led to two similarly divergent views on ethical training. Outside the Buddhist context, Confucian philosophers have debated on how to view human nature and ethics. Mengzi used the analogy of innate human goodness in the image of virtuous sprouts that need nourishing, while Xunzi used the analogy of human nature as crooked wood that needs to be shaped by education into something useful. I argue that the current debate on whether or not explicit ethics should be taught in mindfulness programs can benefit from looking to similar debates within the Buddhist tradition and without. Specifically, using Philip Ivanhoe’s framework of Confucian models of ethical acquisition, development, re-formation, recovery, and discovery will add depth to the contemporary mindfulness discussion and hopefully move the debate pass the current stalemate.
Implicit ethics and mindfulness: Subtle assumptions that MBIs are values-neutral
Buddhist teachings place ethics at the core of mindfulness: the intent is the cultivation of the Noble Person who transcends self-interest and lives for the wellbeing of others. Clinical, contemporary mindfulness-based interventions follow the root injunction that the ethics taught are implicitly imparted. The rationale is to avoid imposing external values and action-guides upon participants and to hold the individual's values foremost. However, this stance makes several assumptions about the unavoidable ethics brought into contact by the teacher, program content, and participants. The assumption that implicit ethics shields the participant from external influence subtly upholds the long-discarded concept that interventions can be values-neutral. This paper explores this fallacy of values-neutrality and re-affirms that explicitly explored ethics in mindfulness-based interventions are crucial to the cultivation of the Noble Person.
A New Hope: Introduction to A Practitioner's Guide to Ethics in Mindfulness-Based Programs.
This chapter might be subtitled " Ethics, Poetics, and the Power of a Weak Community. " It considers the phenomenon of the ethical critique of mindfulness based programs (MBPs), particularly from within the MBP community itself, and attempts to define the motivation for it. Defining ethics, with Aristotle, as the least precise of all the sciences, the chapter introduces a poetics of MBP pedagogy as a more useful approach to such thinking. Applying poetics, the actions of the pedagogy are shown to generate qualities that allow the class to be with and in the experience of the moment. These qualities are suggested as virtues that shape the experience of the classroom. These virtues result in generation of a form of community that is strongly bonded, yet also weakly bounded, making it a safe and productive place for those who dissent from inside or who are vulnerable outside the community. The chapter ends with a question about the utility of such a community structure for the scholarly, scientific, and pedagogical enterprise of the MBPs overall.
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