Where & When Did Mindfulness Begin?
The earliest documented evidence detailing mindfulness practices (deliberately paying attention to the present moment with kindness and curiosity) was in the Vedas approx. 1500-1200 BCE (Before Common Era). These are the oldest texts of Hinduism. But this doesn’t mean they were the earliest culture to be practicing mindfulness.
The Vedas were written in Sanskrit. This common sanskrit symbol is the the symbol for “om” and actually represents three symbols. One for each sound “A”, “U” & “M” combined into a single symbol in Sanskrit version of running writing where each letter actually sits on top of the other and is adapted slightly (Wiki: learn more).
Indigenous peoples inhabited Australia at least 65,000 years ago [Australian National Museum], that’s roughly 62,300 BCE! The current elders of these cultures pass down many different practices which could be described as mindfulness, some resemble a form of Taiji (T’ai Chi). Other connecting to country practices involve stillness, dance or solitude.
Mindfulness is secular, it is not aligned with any particular culture or religion, but it could be applied in any of those places with respect to their local beliefs.
Memories of the sayings of the Buddha, who only taught orally, no written scriptures, were carried down after he died 483 BCE. They were compiled into collections called suttas (Pali) or sutras (Sanskrit). They detailed a fairly clear instruction on how to meditate and utilise its benefits and this evolved into what we know as Buddhism today.
Buddhism has several schools / branches, just like other religions. You may have heard of Zen, Theravada, Vajrayana.
In roughly 200 BCE Yoga as we know it was documented by adapting the Vedas into the Pantajali Sutras. You may not know that Yoga is actually a full system of wellbeing. What we see in yoga studios (the asanas or positions) are the Western world doing its best to get people interested in the whole system of wellbeing that includes breathwork, meditation, self-reflection etc.
Many of the world’s ethical traditions, cultures or religions of the past have had similar concepts to those used in Mindfulness. So where did the word mindfulness come from?
The word “mindfulness” was first used in 1910 by a Buddhist scholar to translate a Pali term (a North Indian language) from a Buddhist text into English.
In 1979 a Molecular Biologist in America named John Kabat-Zinn, founded the Stress Reduction Clinic after having discovered Buddhism when a Zen missionary presented the topic at MIT. At the clinic, he adapted Zen Buddhism, Vipassana, Hatha Yoga and a number of other teachings into a secular therapeutic intervention to reduce the detrimental impacts of stress. He labelled this program Mindfulenss Based Stress Reduction when publishing a study demonstrating its benefits in 1982. (Baminiwatta, 2021)
Since then, a large body of research evidence has accrued in support of the beneficial effects of mindfulness on diverse mental and physical health attributes (Creswell, 2017; Khoury et al., 2013).
What the term Mindfulness now represents is any evidence-based adaptation of traditional methods of connecting to the present moment without judgement.
All of the knowledge I share is based on things that have been proven as effective, in published scientific journals. This includes breathwork, yoga positions, meditations, performance sports, behavioral therapy, adaptation for conditions such as ADHD, or for children and teens.
This has its’s limitations. The body of research that proves mindfulness is effective is relatively young (since 1966) and doesn’t earn anybody a great deal of money. So further research doesn’t receive strong funding support from pharmaceuticals like other psychiatry research does.
