Secular mindfulness, non-religious Buddhism or 'Buddhism without the awkward bits' has come into our three education sectors, Primary, Secondary and Higher.

Although acknowledging the source as the Buddhist teachings, it is very different. This study looks at the original scriptures and draws out 5 misconceptions in practice and why they may be harmful to those who undertake them.

The presentation will also show how the right understanding of mindfulness can be incorporated into the existing curriculum. As a starter for GCSE physics, biology and A level Medical physics and as a main activity for PSHE/Citizenship and Religious Education.

This presentation was delivered to the 9th TEAN Annual Conference on 11th May 2018.

A paper is available from the TEAN storehouse. https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/media/university-of-cumbria-website/content-asset...

YouTube digital speech presentation: https://youtu.be/6yumN14By34

The background picture is of Vasa, a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. It sank within 20 minutes of its maiden voyage, killing many of those on board. This was Sweden's biggest ever financial disaster. The King wanted the best ever warship. The original designer died and the ship then kept on getting altered.
This ship sunk due to the lack of understanding of the theory, a high centre of gravity,

Similarly, we have this ship of secular mindfulness which will sink those on board sooner or later as it has missed out a large chunk of the theory of mindfulness, the Abhidhamma.

This ship is becoming the UK's biggest ever mental disaster.

We read in the original texts that the Buddha's son could have no more mental suffering of any kind after the age of 20. The same with his wife, Princess Yasodhara. Both had developed right mindfulness.

Of course we do not know this to be true, however, we can begin to understand why this might be the case by examining the theory of mindfulness to understand the mechanism by which it works.

This theory must be right, otherwise the practice will be wrong. Wrong practice will lead in opposite direction, so mental sufferings will increase.

This theory is difficult. It is ambitious to understand it.

The first misconception concerns the source of this right understanding. The following three are misconceptions of practice and the last is why these will harm you.

5 Misconceptions in Mindfulness.

1. History is not important.

2. The understanding of the difference between concept and reality is not necessary.

3. The understanding which understands conditioned realities is not conditioned.

4. The purpose of mindfulness is to be calm.

5. Wrong mindfulness will not harm you.

90% of science teacher trainees have a misconception of weight in space. Most will say their weight is very small or zero.

Astronauts actually have a lot of weight in space. This is a complex problem involving the dynamics of circular motion.

Difficult concepts get 'dumbed down'. We might call this watered down physics or Mcphysics or just
wrong!

It is easier to teach with this misconception rather than understand the truth of the laws of gravity and acceleration.

Around 50% of physics
specialists also have misconceptions over Newton's third law.

To understand these misconceptions, we need to go back 300 years in history to Newton's 1st, 2nd, 3rd laws of motion and his law of gravitation.

In two thousand years time these laws will still apply.

At UEL, I have a list of 200 misconceptions for GCSE (14-16 years old) physics. these were derived from a journal paper by Joel Kramer. The first one is that history has no place in science.

If our pupils ignore these 'historical greats' they will have poor physics.

History is important for physics.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

From this quote we know that 99% plus of Buddhists must have misconceptions.
How many misconceptions might there be after 2500 years? 20,000?

If we look at some non-secular and secular practices today there is very little difference. Secular mindfulness grows out of misconceptions of Buddhism. It grows out of the 'dumbing down' of mindfulness in Buddhism by Buddhists.

These 20,000 misconceptions can mostly be eliminated by 4 misconceptions. The 5th misconception here is why they will harm.

See: DN 16 Mahāparinibbāna Sutta - The Great Passing, The Buddha's Last Days

Slide quote from:
Kindred Sayings” (I, VI, The Brahmā Suttas, Ch I, § 1, The Entreaty)

Mindfulness does not belong to the Buddha in the same way as gravity does not belong to Newton. However, as we have seen most people have misconceptions about gravity and it requires someone who understands what Newton understood to correct these. People DO NOT HAVE THE ABILITY to figure this out by themselves.

In the same way, the theory of mindfulness is deep and difficult and beyond most people to figure it out by themselves. Secular mindfulness has not been created as a result of understanding mindfulness in Buddhism and then removing the 'awkward bits'. It is not the mindfulness the Buddha taught. It is something else.
History is important to understand mindfulness.

The Tipitaka, the 'Bible of Buddhism' consists of three parts The Abhidamma is one of the parts. It consists of 7 books as well as 4 books of commentaries. It is essential for the understanding of 'How Mindfulness Works'.
It is the engine of mindfulness.

It is completely absent from secular mindfulness and more less absent from all non-secular practice of mindfulness.

If you remove the engine from a car, it will not work.

Abhidhamma, translates as 'higher reality' or 'higher teaching' from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. This first misconception concerns how Abhidhamma applies to reality.

We have two questions which can diagnose these misconceptions of reality and wrong practice.

The picture is from the Art of Brick exhibition showing
a picture of a woman's head.

The typical answer of woman’s head is not an accurate description of what we see. Did you describe the writing or what is seen to the left or right of the picture. We are selecting out from what what is seen.

With just three colours, we form the idea of a person from what is seen. Of course there is no person here, just lego, actually not even lego. So what is happening?

We do not see words. We see different lines/shades, our mind instantly translates the lines into words. Seeing sees and this is followed by thinking in words. In the same way, the mind translates the different colours of what is seen into shape and form of something such as a person, as in our picture. There are different types of thinking. Thinking of shape and form is a type of thinking. We perceive a person. However we cannot see a person.

The same process occurs when we see a 'real person'

What is seen is real, however person, table, whiteboard are ideas read out of reality. They are concepts the object of thinking. This is not a theory of life, but life as it is. The reality which is seen is not understood. This is the domain of mindfulness. To study realities as they are so that they can be understood.

The engineer exploits this mechanism.

I was in orbit with Tim Peak and re-entered the Earths atmosphere for £6.50. This was using a virtual reality headset at the science museum. Better than the actual thing, because unlike Tim peak I could have a coffee and cookie afterwards. Whereas Tim Peak had to be carried out of his capsule by 10 people,

This could be used as a starter in GCSE physics or A level medical physics. The eye is only sensitive to colour. The brain then reads this information to form up the idea of person or chair. Our engineers need to know this if they are to design our virtual reality headsets and our iMax cinemas.

How many objects can you touch?

Only three objects can be touched.

Typical answers such as chair, table, person shows the reality is hidden. We can only touch hardness
or softness, hot or cold, motion or pressure.

The body is only sensitive to hardness or softness, hot or cold, motion or pressure.

We experience a reality and this is immediately followed by thinking. Table is a concept the object of thinking.

Our KS4 biologists need to know this and so we have a starter for them. The body is sensitive to these three objects and from these, nerve signals are sent to the brain via the nervous system.

If we take the word heat, this word represents a reality which can be directly experienced through the body-sense as hot or cold. We do not have to call it by any name. In science, we understand temperature as the average kinetic energy of the molecules. However, this is thinking about the temperature, not the direct experience of temperature.

Science never studies reality directly, only concepts about reality.
We are turbo-charging science with these almost bland starters as we are turning the mind from concepts about reality to reality itself.

Mindfulness studies reality directly. When there is mindfulness a reality appears clearer than before. In this way understanding of it will develop.

It is essential for the development of mindfulness to know the object of mindfulness which is a reality not a concept.

This is completely missing from secular mindfulness or even non-secular mindfulness as practised in the West.

Any practice involving posture or place is wrong.

We are now grouping phenomena into two types concepts and realities.

What hears now and what sees now?

There are two types of reality.

The mental and the physical. Sound does not experience anything but can be experienced. Hearing consciousness experiences sound.

Hearing consciousness does not live anywhere it does not have any arms and legs it just experiences sound. It is a mental phenomena.

Anger, attachment, love, intention are mental phenomena. They experience an object.

What we take for a person, chair, car, bus, are just different realities which come into existence by a condition and fall away immediately.

When you clap your hand a sound is produced. The sound does not come from anywhere, it does not go anywhere. It arises by a condition and falls away.
It only arises once in life.

All realities are like this they arise by conditions and fall away immediately. They never return again. Anger, sadness, compassion, kindness, racism. All realities which arise by conditions. There is no abiding self or agent who has control over them. They arise once and then they are gone completely never to return.

In the absolute sense there is no person, no self, just different realities arising and falling away by different conditions.

Mindfulness is conditioned to arise. No one can make mindfulness arise. Intention to have it is not a condition for it, sitting is not a condition. It is the intellectual understanding of this difference between reality and concept which is the condition.

There must be the firm intellectual understanding of these realities and their nature as not self or something in order to condition mindfulness.

Any practice involving going to a certain place at a certain time or selecting an object or trying, is wrong practice. It is the self trying. Realities work by themselves. Mindfulness begins with detachment from the very beginning. It arises by conditions.

Secular mindfulness lacks the condition for mindfulness. Secular mindfulness loses this conditionality of reality and inserts a belief in a self who can make mindfulness arise. It introduces a ritual of doing something at a certain time. It inserts dogma where there was no dogma.

The precise understanding of the impermanence of reality will lead to the eradication of the idea of self.

Suffering in the absolute sense is the arising and falling away of each moment of life.

This difference between concept and reality is completely missing in GCSE Buddhism specifications, as such, the teaching of the Four Noble Truths is meaningless.

We now have a new meaning of the word spirituality which can be used in RE sessions. We go wrong because we have misconceptions about reality itself. We suffer and cause others to suffer because we take the concept for reality.

We also now have a challenge to the humanist which could be used in Citizenship or RE classes.

The humanist will go wrong sooner or later. He or she makes the assumption that there is an abiding self or ego that can make decisions as to right or wrong. In reality each moment is conditioned and the humanist unknowingly accumulates the condition for going wrong.

The purpose of mindfulness is to study reality in order to understand it's characteristics as it is.

The whole purpose of mindfulness is to understand.
To be a Buddhist is to be confident that sound, tastes, sights, that this moment can be understood. To worship the Buddha is to develop this understanding.

When there is mindfulness, a reality appears clearer than before it's characteristic is apparent and understanding can grow. This understanding will eliminate attachment to the idea of self and eventually all attachment.

This understanding is called insight meditation in Pāli: vipassanā. It is not intellectual understanding but the direct understanding of a characteristic of reality.

Even before the Buddha’s time there were people who saw the disadvantages of sense impressions and the clinging to them. They developed Tranquil Meditation (secular).

Tranquil meditation, in Pāli: samatha and insight meditation in Pāli: vipassanā have each a different aim and a different way of development. In tranquil meditation one develops calm by concentrating on a meditation subject in order to be temporarily free from sense impressions and the attachment which is bound up with them.

For example, when we have mental states rooted in detachment such as kindness, generosity, compassion. There is calmness at such moments, but for a very short length of time. By thinking about kindness over and over again. It can condition temporary absorption where are no sense impressions.

One object of tranquil meditation is mindfulness of breathing but this is very difficult and not suitable for the beginner. Indeed it could cause someone to hyperventilate and become dizzy with headaches.

“But this mindfulness of breathing is difficult, difficult to develop, a field in which only the minds of Buddhas, "Silent Buddhas", and Buddhas' sons are at home. “ The Path of Purification (VIII, 211).

The development of calm is not necessary for the development of insight but can go along with it.

Reworded from The Buddha's Path by Nina van Gorkom

Attachment is a condition for aversion. This can be towards ideas as well as sense objects. The examples below could be explored in RE, PSHE and Citizenship lessons.

The cat jumps in front of the television when Strictly Come Dancing (or our favouriteprogramme) is on.

The Tunbridge Wells resident (upmarket-town) is devastated when Poundland (down-market shop) comes to the City Centre.

The wife gets agitated when coffee is poured into a tea mug.

The devastated teenager whose smart-phone has run out of battery.

The unhappy mother who cannot cross the road with her baby due to traffic queuing for a superstore.

Attachment causes us to go wrong.


Attachment is never satisfied. We always want something else or somebody else.

If you are a teacher you could try this lovely idea from Teachers TV, authored by Susie Paskins.

Get your 11-year-old, pupils to colour in a picture of a Mandala for half an hour then get the best-behaved pupil to come forward and explain their picture to the rest of the class.

Then tell this person to rip it up and put it in the bin!

Watch as he bursts into tears. Then watch the rest of the class burst into tears. After you have got the sack you can reflect that your attachment to your mortgage, job, pleasant things conditions your aversion.

'Casting aside the lovely form' This does not mean that we throw Margot Robbie out of the window!

Attachment is cast aside by understanding the true nature of what it is we are attached to. Realities are impermanent and only last a split second, this understanding will condition detachment.

Secular mindfulness cannot achieve this as it 'misses the real'.

Secular mindfulness has come into our schools and universities, largely unchallenged. Yet in these practices, there is no evidence that the difference between concept and reality is understood, neither is there the understanding of the application of conditionality to practice, the mechanism by which mindfulness arises is therefore lost. The mechanism becomes the idea of the self who can cause mindfulness to arise. This is going in the opposite direction to the purpose of mindfulness which is detachment from the idea of self and so it merely becomes another object of attachment. It is harmful because it misleads into thinking that it is being developed and it makes it harder to develop correctly. It blocks the understanding of the world by taking itself to be the right path. Attachment to the objects around us and to the idea of self will accumulate with the inevitable consequence of suffering for the practitioner.

Secular mindfulness is fake mindfulness. It misses the real, it is merely a subset of the wrong practice of mindfulness. Pupils and students who practice it will fall into the flame of the lamp sooner or later.

They hasten up and past, but miss the real;
A bondage ever new they cause to grow.
Just as the flutterers fall into the lamp,
So some are bent on what they see and hear.
Udana VI, ix (Woodward, 1987)