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A significant limiting factor in the current mindfulness literature is that while core concepts have been incorporated into Western psychology, they appear in a decontextualized manner. This causes construct validity issues as evidenced by vastly diverging definitions of key terms. In this paper, a behavioral scientist and Buddhist monk collaborate...
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... The concept of mindfulness originated in Buddhism and was transferred to Western psychology in the 1970s, primarily initiated by neuroscientist Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness can be defined as consisting of two elements: a certain quality of consciousness that can be described as attention to internal and external experiences in the present moment (Brown et al., 2007), and a specific quality of this attention defined as curious, non-referential, nonidentified, accepting, and nonjudgmental (Baer, 2018;Brown et al., 2007;Kabat-Zinn, 1990;Kudesia & Nyima, 2015) Individuals differ in their degree of mindfulness, a) due to their disposition for it and b) due to their cultivation of it by means of contemplative practices (Burzler & Tran, 2022). Although there is disagreement as to whether all facets of mindfulness can be trained equally through contemplative practice (Rau & Williams, 2016), taken together, dispositional and cultivated mindfulness sum up to trait mindfulness -a capacity that can also be referred to as mindfulness skills (Burzler & Tran, 2022). ...
... In addition, the measurement of mindfulness with the scale used in all three studies must be critically reflected upon; it is debatable whether the operationalization by Baer et al. (2008) potentially goes beyond the core of mindfulness, for example, with the dimension "describing" that might rather represent a mindfulness practice (Kudesia & Nyima, 2015). Other limitations relate to the internal validity of our data. ...
Many mobile phone usage behaviors and cognitions have become habitual, and many people have developed a strong connectedness to their mobile phones and the internet. Yet, habitualized mobile phone connectedness might evoke stress and counter long-term goals. Mindfulness has shown promise in counteracting destructive (mobile phone) habits. Over the course of three preregistered studies, we investigated the interrelations between mindfulness, four dimensions of mobile phone connectedness, and stress. Our results indicate that more mindful individuals check their mobile phones less automatically, perform less multitasking, have a lower mobile phone attachment, and experience less online vigilance. Self-control is an important mediator in these relationships. Further, mindful individuals experience less stress; however, mobile phone behaviors and cognitions do not mediate this relationship. Moreover, mindfulness-based stress reduction training or mediation apps seem to be powerful tools for cultivating mindfulness, as they promoted an increase in mindfulness and a decrease in the investigated dimensions of mobile phone connectedness and stress. Results are discussed regarding implications for research and practice.
... Traditional mindfulness models (Kudesia & Nyima, 2014;Thera, 1962) posit an introductory level of 'mindfulness' entailing noticing mental and physical phenomena objectively without attachment, and also ...
... Achieving some level of mastery of these fundamentals, individuals may progress to a more intermediate level or a psychological variation of 'calm abiding', observing neutrally and non-judgmentally all phenomena without the optional sense of a 'self'. The expected outcomes in traditional mindfulness include the intermittent 'state' experience of the dissolution of the sense of a 'self' (Kudesia & Nyima, 2014). A third level of 'meditation' practices (De Castro, 2015) have the aim of assisting in attaining sustained non-judgmental attention towards phenomena, and an abiding nondual experience of well-being (Gunaratana, 2002). ...
... Right mindfulness engages with a range of perceptual, cognitive, and affective phenomena (Bodhi, 1994;Kudesia & Nyima, 2015) which expands consciousness beyond a mental faculty to an emergent experience (Kudesia & Nyima, 2015). This characteristic of right mindfulness might help individuals to more deeply understand the multiplicity of experiences in organizational life (Zanoni et al, 2010). ...
... Right mindfulness engages with a range of perceptual, cognitive, and affective phenomena (Bodhi, 1994;Kudesia & Nyima, 2015) which expands consciousness beyond a mental faculty to an emergent experience (Kudesia & Nyima, 2015). This characteristic of right mindfulness might help individuals to more deeply understand the multiplicity of experiences in organizational life (Zanoni et al, 2010). ...
This study examines non-Western perceptions of inclusion and exclusion through an examination of right mindfulness practitioners in Vietnam. It contributes to the critical inclusion literature that problematizes inclusion by showing how right mindfulness practitioners rejected the concepts of inclusion and exclusion, and moreover, resisted attachments to feelings of inclusion or exclusion, treating both states as empty and non-enduring. Surprisingly, our study shows how inclusion can generate fear at fulfilling others’ collective expectations, whereas exclusion generated a sense of freedom arising from a release from those expectations. Further, our study traces these counter-intuitive findings to right mindfulness practitioners’ moral reasoning based upon Buddhism’s canonical philosophical ideas. We conclude by highlighting the pressing need for critical perspectives and for further non-Western perspectives to inclusion that contribute to a body of cross-cultural work.
... This in turn is seen to deliver an experience that is not subject to change, one that has transcended the impact of life conditions, and as such is ongoingly happy. Seen as an endpoint of training [21], enlightenment we could say fits the description of full satisfaction (100%) and as such transcends the normal setpoint range (75%) of only partially satisfied well-being. ...
... Over time a practitioner gets to perceive the impermanent nature of mental and physical phenomena (anicca), and the lack of an abiding self (anatta) [67]. This state of enlightenment is the end goal to which the method aims, hence Buddhist psychology seeks to demonstrate that all suffering emanates from an ignorance (avidya) of reality as it is, and upon realising this, distress dissipates and a self-less way of experiencing the world called enlightenment (bodhi) is gradually revealed [21]. ...
... The next recommendation is to explore the various training models employed in the nondual approaches that assist practitioners to move through the beginner, intermediate and advanced stages [21,107]. For example, like in Tibetan Buddhism, practitioners could be taught at the introductory level to notice mental and physical phenomena objectively without attachment, and to deconstruct the tendency to separate subject and object. ...
In the last fifty years there has been a growing scientific interest in what makes up happiness. Life areas such as relationships, work, or money were investigated however it was found that they only partially predicted happiness. More subjective factors such as cognition and affect were explored, and the term subjective well-being (SWB) became popular. However, because SWB was based on fluctuating mental states and changing life conditions, it was always unstable, and on average people reported themselves mostly happy but not completely happy. In response we ask what it takes to be fully happy. This chapter explores the possibility of whether happiness can be a stable attribute of a fully functional human being. We turn to traditional mindfulness and the ancient wisdom traditions who assert we can achieve lasting happiness and ask what are the psychological mechanisms that can be drawn from them. Their claim that the sense of self is constructed and responsible for the fluctuations in happiness is explored, and a model of robust happiness is considered.
... Hence, taking a construct like mindfulness from one network (Buddhist origins) and applying it to another (modern Western psychology) is not a simple task. Kudesia and Nyima (2015) attempted to tackle this issue by offering a definition of mindfulness that builds from both Buddhist and Western psychological disciplines. They outlined that such a definition should cover the five traditional Buddhist cognitive skills needed for breath meditation, which is the core of most mindfulness programs (e.g., Bishop et al., 2004) as well as the Western neuropsychological mechanisms. ...
... In summary, Kudesia and Nyima (2015) have provided a contextualised definition of mindfulness that more fully represents the construct's Buddhist roots and describes mindfulness in terms that are amenable to cognitive neuropsychology. They define mindfulness as three components: heightened meta-awareness, decreased discursive cognition and goal-based attention regulation. ...
The aim of the empirical work reported in this thesis was to examine the impact of mindfulness on creative cognition and visual attention. The first investigation comprised two meta-analytical reviews to determine the overarching outcome that mindfulness interventions have on creativity and considered the role of intervention length, the type of creativity assessed and the methodological differences of mindfulness studies. The next investigation involved a short-term mindfulness intervention to examine the outcomes on visual attention in a flanker task and a sustained attention to response task (SART), including outcomes on creative cognition using rebus puzzles. The final empirical study examined the links between visual attention using the flanker task and convergent and divergent creative performance using the Compound Remote Associates Task (CRAT) and the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). Collectively, the thesis addresses the complicated relationship between mindfulness and creative cognition and elucidates the important role of attention inhibition and executive attention for convergent and divergent creative processes, which it is argued contribute to a stage of creative idea evaluation.
... The systematic description of mindfulness originates from Indian Buddhism two thousand years ago. It refers to a mental state in which people perceive, that is, the state in which people think and accept themselves and even the world [1]. Mindfulness meditation, on the other hand, is defined as cultivating a kind of instantaneous awareness of one's perception, consciousness, emotion, state, and environment [2,3]. ...
... In view of the lack of discussion on these higher states, there may be some benefit from taking a multidisciplinary approach that offers new vantage points to the inquiry (Jones, 2018). One such avenue is Buddhist psychology and its assertion that the nondual or enlightened state, which is an endpoint of training, describes the above experience of well-being (Kudesia & Nyima, 2014). As such, is it is possible to transcend the normal setpoint range of subjective well-being, and can the mindfulness practices born from this paradigm get us there? ...
... A reasonable critique of current mindfulness is that, in being taken out of its Buddhist origins and re-presented in a decontextualized manner (Shonin et al., 2014), it failed to export the goals of enlightenment that its original structure was serving (a criticism also levelled at yoga when it was exported from Hinduism). For example exercises to improve general well-being or reduce anxiety have been extracted from practices designed to illustrate the misperception of subject-object duality, which whilst certainly correlated with improved mental health, miss the complexity offered by its parent philosophy (Kudesia & Nyima, 2014;Purser & Milillo, 2014). ...
... Secondly, as there is much evidence that modern or 'introductory' mindfulness training improves general wellbeing, it is proposed here that a progressive training approach could be explored that might assist practitioners through beginner, intermediate and advanced stages, as outlined in traditional mindfulness models (Kudesia & Nyima, 2014;Thera, 1962). For example like in Tibetan Buddhism, practitioners could be initially trained in the introductory level of 'mindfulness'. ...
Research into subjective well-being (SWB) focuses on conducive life conditions, healthy cognitive-affective processes and adaptive behaviours, however, in this model, well-being fluctuates based on changing mental and physical phenomena. This inquiry explores the possibility that we can have a nondual experience of well-being that is unaffected by such movements and investigates if the literature supports this. The assertion in traditional mindfulness that the sense of self is constructed and responsible for such fluctuations is explored, along with what evidence there is that mindfulness practices deliver relevant cognitive and behavioural correlates associated with such a way of being. Proposed preconditions include (a) nondual awareness or the perception of no-self; (b) increased positive affect, decreased negative affect, and increased self-lessness; (c) increased capacity to maintain (or protect) well-being including heightened emotional self-regulation and resilience to aversive stimuli. Research findings provide some evidence that the sense of self can be both constructed and deconstructed, and that mindfulness training may target psychological dimensions that could contribute to an experience of well-being that transcends the impact of life conditions. Recommendations are made for a collaborative relationship between SWB research and mindfulness to expand the inquiry into possible causes and conditions of ‘nondual well-being’.
... More importantly, individuals may exhibit different behavioral patterns across different situations (Pervin, 1989). As Kudesia (2019) and Kudesia and Nyima (2015) emphasized, particular situations naturally stimulate one's situation-focused mindfulness. Hence, the specific demonstrations of mindfulness in daily life differ from those observed in the workplace. ...
... Mindfulness training allows individuals to become aware of their internal feelings and external stimuli without reacting to them (Hofmann et al., 2010). In addition to allowing for mindfulness interventions, a skill-based conceptualization of workplace mindfulness is sensitive to other external factors, such as the working environment (Kudesia, 2019;Kudesia & Nyima, 2015). Indeed, skills should be considered context-specific because they have varied expressions in different situations (Attewell, 1990), reflecting the focal individual's behavioral reactions at work toward unique experiences, events, and environments. ...
... Supporting this rationale, Kudesia (2019) and Kudesia and Nyima (2015) highlighted the context-specific nature of mindfulness, recognizing that mindfulness reflects the individual's metacognitive skills, which are engaged in a particular situation. Bishop (2002) suggested that mindfulness practice actually encompasses several metacognitive processes, proposing that mindfulness can be described as a type of metacognitive skill. ...
While mindfulness has garnered increasing attention in organizations, few studies have operationalized workplace mindfulness and developed a valid measurement of this construct. Given this limitation, it is difficult to obtain a comprehensive understanding of workplace mindfulness or to promote theoretical and empirical research investigating this construct. To address this issue, the current research aims to examine the conceptualization of workplace mindfulness and seeks to develop a psychometrically sound scale assessing this construct. Based on the mindfulness literature, we propose a multidimensional model of workplace mindfulness consisting of three dimensions: awareness, attention, and acceptance. Across seven phases with six independent samples, and using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, our results provide support for the proposed multidimensional structure and reveal sound reliability and validity of the developed scale. This new instrument will be a valuable tool for both researchers and practitioners to assess employees’ mindfulness in working situations.
... Weick and Putnam (2006) called for an integration of Eastern and Western perspectives. In a critical review of mindfulness research, Kudesia and Nyima (2015) argued that mindfulness is not just a positive tool to improve wellbeing in the organizational context. Instead, we should examine how mindfulness shapes practices of compassion (Kudesia, 2019). ...
... Instead, we should examine how mindfulness shapes practices of compassion (Kudesia, 2019). In Eastern traditions, mindfulness practices transform fundamental worldviews and identities (Kudesia & Nyima, 2015). As a pioneer of engaged Buddhism, Ambedkar's radical interdependence will help us decolonize mindfulness research in organizations. ...
In this paper, using Ambedkar’s pioneering vision for engaged Buddhism, we developed the notion of radical interdependence, which consists of four interrelated processes: (a) dialogical recognition; (b) negating invisibilities; (c) dignity as an embodied praxis; (d) ordinary cosmopolitanism. Our research primarily focused on women janitors’ lives (N = 20) in a Mumbai Mall using this conception. Our participants experienced four different kinds of dignity injuries (yelling, invisibility, the target of suspicion of theft of valuables, othering). They used various strategies to preserve personal, intersubjective, and processual dignities. We also found horizontal and vertical ordinary cosmopolitanism strategies to bridge social boundaries between colleagues and mall customers. We further discuss the implications of radical interdependence for organizational research.
... Herein, mindfulness is studied at the individual level, with or without mindfulness intervention. Scholars in this research theme have either taken a relational and ethical view of mindfulness -arguing mindfulness as an enabler of healthy interactions with others (Good et al., 2016;Kudesia & Nyima, 2015) -or anchored their studies within social mindfulness theory (Van Doesum et al., 2013). According to the latter theory, being socially mindful means paying attention to the needs and interests of others, through perspective-taking and empathic concern (Gerpott et al., 2020). ...
Over time mindfulness research and practice has taken on diverse basic assumptions and theoretical traditions, and the pseudo‐scientific use of the term has become more prevalent. Given the ubiquitousness of both personal and professional applications of mindfulness, the need for a thorough understanding of its theoretical cornerstones is necessary. In this review, we use bibliometric techniques to uncover the field's intellectual roots (Study 1), and document bibliographic coupling analysis to illuminate current research avenues across management disciplines (Study 2). Our bibliometric process covers 48 references for co‐citation and 238 articles for bibliographic coupling analyses, respectively, published between 2012 and 2020. Co‐citation analysis reveals a shift of focus from the past two historical mindfulness schools of thought (Eastern and Western) to a novel intellectual structure of the mindfulness field articulated around three distinct yet overlapping research streams. We propose integrative ways to advance mindfulness research by unpacking mindfulness processes, dimensions and development, arguing that the integration of these three main foci is necessary to advance understanding of mindfulness. Bibliometric coupling analysis identifies eight management‐related mindfulness research themes. We discuss the extent to which these eight themes have comparably explored the three foci (mindfulness processes, dimensions and development) highlighted in our model. Lastly, we use our theory‐driven review to draw on under‐developed areas of research, identifying profitable directions for future research on mindfulness in the workplace and beyond.
