Abstract
Questions regarding the relation between mindfulness practice and training in morality have initiated a variety of responses. This chapter undertakes a threefold task. First is an examination of the different ways in which the relation between mindfulness practice and morality training is conceived. This analysis identifies three common ways in which the relation is presented: inherent, integral, and modular. These three are defined, and examples of each are provided. This is a rhetorical analysis and does not seek to engage the technical aspects of philosophical ethics. The second task is to problematize the assumptions underlying the importance given to morality training. The argument here is that since the nineteenth century, religion has been defined both as a general category that includes Buddhism and as being the foundation for ethics. The expectation that Buddhist teachings, including a secularized version such as mindfulness, would include training in morality is overdetermined, that is, it follows as much from those expectations as from the character of the Buddhist tradition itself. The third task is an examination of the differences between the Buddhist and Christian traditions’ understandings of the role of morality. The differences are based on differing conceptions of the fundamental issues of human existence, ignorance in the case of Buddhism, and sinfulness in the Christian. The three parts of the inquiry constitute a progressive development, each laying the groundwork for the next. Identifying the conceptions of the relation between mindfulness and morality by examining the rhetoric employed provides a basis for examining the idea that religion is the foundation for morality and in turn the role of morality in Buddhism as contrasted with Christianity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Analayo. (2003). Satipatthāna: The direct path to realization. Cambridge, UK: Windhorse Publications.
Bodhi, B. (1993). A comprehensive manual of Abhidhamma. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society.
Brown, C. (2016). Can ‘secular’ mindfulness be separated from religion? In R. E. Purser, D. Forbes, & A. Burke (Eds.), Handbook of mindfulness: Culture, context, and social engagement (pp. 75–94). New York, NY: Springer.
Condon, P., Desbordes, G., Miller, W. B., & DeSteno, D. (2013). Meditation increases compassionate responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24(10), 2125–2127.
DeSteno, D. (2013, July 5). The morality of meditation. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/opinion/sunday/the-morality-of-meditation.html
Dreyfus, G. (2002). Is compassion an emotion? A cross-cultural exploration of mental typologies. In R. J. Davidson & A. Harrington (Eds.), Visions of compassion: Western scientists and tibetan buddhists examine human nature. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Fitzgerald, T. (2003). The ideology of religious studies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Fitzgerald, T. (2017). Critical religion: Religion is not a stand-alone category. In R. King (Ed.), Religion, theory, critique: Classical and contemporary approaches and methodologies. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Gombrich, R. F. (2009). What the Buddha thought. London, UK: Equinox.
Gould, S. J. (1999). Rocks of ages: Science and religion in the fullness of life. New York, NY: Ballantine Publishing Group.
Guenther, H. V. (1974). Philosophy and psychology in the abhidharma. Berkeley, CA: Shambhala.
Harrington, A. (2002). A science of compassion or a compassionate science? What do we expect from a cross-cultural dialogue with Buddhism? In R. J. Davidson & A. Harrington (Eds.), Visions of compassion: Western scientists and tibetan buddhists examine human nature. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hsu, F. (2016). What is the sound of one invisible hand clapping? Neoliberalism, the invisibility of asian and asian american buddhists, and secular mindfulness in education. In R. E. Purser, D. Forbes, & A. Burke (Eds.), Handbook of mindfulness: Culture, context, and social engagement (pp. 369–381). New York, NY: Springer.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2011). Some reflections on the origins of mbsr, skillful means, and the trouble with maps. Contemporary Buddhism, 12(1), 281–306.
Lindahl, J. R. (2015). Why right mindfulness might not be right for mindfulness. Mindfulness, 6, 57–62.
Masuzawa, T. (2005). The invention of world religions: Or, how european universalism was preserved in the language of pluralism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
McMahan, D. (2008a). A brief history of interdependence. Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, 3rd series, 10, 131–176.
McMahan, D. (2008b). The making of buddhist modernism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Monteiro, L. M., Musten, R. F., & Compson, J. (2015). Traditional and contemporary mindfulness: Finding the middle path in the tangle of concerns. Mindfulness, 6(1), 1–13.
Pasternack, L. & Rossi, P. (2014). Kant’s philosophy of religion. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/kant-religion/
Payne, R. K. (2012). Fractal journeys: narrative structure of the path and of tantric practice. Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies 3rd series, 14, 277–297.
Payne, R. K. (2016). Mindfulness and the moral imperative for the self to improve the self. In R. E. Purser, D. Forbes, & A. Burke (Eds.), Handbook of mindfulness: Culture, context, and social engagement (pp. 121–134). New York, NY: Springer.
Purser, R. E., & Milillo, J. (2014). Mindfulness revisited: A Buddhist-based conceptualization. Journal of Management Inquiry, 24(1), 3–24.
Snow, C. P. (1993). The two cultures. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Cambridge, UK: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Welch, C. (1972). Protestant thought in the nineteenth century (2 vols). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Acknowledgments
This is an expanded version of a brief article titled “What does morality have to do with it?” that appeared on the Tricycle website, 14 May 2015, https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/whats-ethics-got-do-it/. My thanks to Alex Caring-Lobel for his encouragement and Fabio Cutro for editorial assistance on that version.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Payne, R.K. (2018). Mindfulness and Morality. In: Stanley, S., Purser, R., Singh, N. (eds) Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness. Mindfulness in Behavioral Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76538-9_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76538-9_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76537-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76538-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)