MINDFULNESS, Wk1-11 Batchelor - what draws others to mindfulness

Wk1-11 Batchelor - what draws others to mindfulness

Well I think this is a moving phase. I think people say, 15 or 20 years ago when they hear of, I suspect 15 or 20 years ago if people were introduced to Buddhist meditation, call it mindfulness, be passing or whatever. They would have come preloaded with a lot of probably somewhat fanciful ideas about oriental, exotic religion and all this kind of stuff. The fact that mindfulness has now become so mainstreamed and has become seen as something that you may do to work with some health issue or your partner, your friends or whatever done it, if your partner or friends or whatever have done a 8-week mindfulness course. You're going to approach it differently to them. I think there's a much greater level of information available through the media, available through popular books on the subject now. And so I don't think mindfulness necessarily carries the sort of baggage that it used to, which was obviously heavily weighted by Buddhism. So I think it is a difference now. And possibly some people for religious reasons might have some objection to its Buddhist sources. I suspect that's quite likely though I imagine for younger people that's probably less of an issue. And there maybe people now who are looking skeptically on mindfulness. They might have read something negative in the press. Or claims that its virtues are being overrated or whatever. So they might not even come with those sort of preconceptions about it being Buddhism in disguise or whatever. But rather, maybe not entirely trustworthy. So, it's difficult to say.