the Old

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The various practices included under the umbrella of "mindfulness meditation" were originally developed within Buddhist traditions, especially Theravada Buddhism, in the Southeast Asian countries of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. As teachers from these countries migrated to the United States and as Western seekers learned and then returned to teach in the U.S, the practices were slowly introduced into Western culture starting around the turn of the 20th century. This type of practice is often called Vipassana meditation or Insight meditation.

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the New

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Adapting to Western audiences, the practices have evolved and changed. Today mindfulness meditation is often taught without reference to the Buddha or Buddhist principles.

 

Instead, the practices can now be taken up entirely in a context of Western cuture. Western science and psychology have recontextualized the earlier teachings.

Most notably,  cognitive psychology and the neurosciences, have profoundly transformed our understanding of these practices. Another stream of influence is Western clinical psychology or the search for remedies to our psychological difficulties.

 

The teaching of mindfulness emphasize that the practices help us become more and more aware of all the non-conscious processes that make us what and who we are-- day to day and moment-to-moment. Through practices of mindfulness at all levels—body sensations, emotions, thoughts—aspects of ourselves that we were unaware of become more and more known, and a process of de-construction or "seeing-through" can begin. With continued practice, there is an ongoing loosening of our tight skin-encapsulated sense of self toward a larger and ever-expanding perspective.