Education and Mindfulness: an Early Buddhist Contribution to the Ongoing Dialog

The ongoing dialog between education and mindfulness can benefit from taking into account the early Buddhist perspective on the role of mindfulness in facilitating learning. This perspective invites proceeding beyond the type of basic mindfulness practices in general use in the field of psychology to a more specific application by way of monitoring mental states and recognizing which of these hinder successful learning. In order to provide a background for a potential broadening of perspective on the potential of mindfulness in education, the article surveys relevant information from the early Buddhist discourses regarding what in ancient India was considered to be the appropriate mode of employing mindfulness for the sake of supporting and improving success in learning.