Elsevier

Current Opinion in Psychology

Volume 28, August 2019, Pages 298-301
Current Opinion in Psychology

Relevance of the no-self theory in contemporary mindfulness

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.03.016Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Briefly criticizes contemporary psychological accounts of mindfulness that ignore or misunderstand the no-self theory.

  • Presents the Buddhist no-self theory, showing its relation to the eightfold noble path and thus to mindfulness.

  • Gives an account of the constructed self-image and how it is mistakenly identified as the self.

  • Concludes: If mindfulness is practiced without achieving no-self, then ultimate psychological well-being cannot be achieved.

The ideas of mindfulness and no-self are intimately connected in Buddhist philosophy. This is because, in Buddhist Philosophy, the practice of mindfulness leads to the realization that there is no self. In contemporary mindfulness in psychology, the no-self theory has not played such a basic role. An outline of Buddhist philosophy is given showing how the ‘root delusion’ of having a self lies at the base of human suffering and how mindfulness, when appropriately deployed, enables one to free oneself from this delusion and thus achieve psychological well-being. This is not to say that mindfulness based interventions do not help to alleviate suffering. Nor is it to say that people working in these areas should not use mindfulness in their own way. It is only to say that by ignoring the no-self experience, teachers and practioners are falling short of achieving what mindfulness was originally employed to achieve.

Section snippets

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • • of special interest

  • •• of outstanding interest

References (26)

  • J. Gu et al.

    How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis

    Clin Psychol Rev

    (2015)
  • J.M.G. Williams

    Mindfulness and psychological process

    Emotion

    (2010)
  • I. Lebuda et al.

    Mind full of ideas: a meta-analysis of the mindfulness–creativity link

    Pers Individ Diff

    (2015)
  • E. Halland et al.

    Mindfulness training improves problem-focused coping in psychology and medical students: results from a randomized controlled trial

    Coll Stud J Fall

    (2015)
  • I. Ivtzan et al.

    Integrating mindfulness into positive psychology: a randomised controlled trial of an online positive mindfulness program

    Mindfulness

    (2016)
  • J.C. Felver et al.

    Applications of mindfulness-based interventions in school settings: an introduction

    Mindfulness

    (2016)
  • E.S. Shonin et al.

    Mindfulness in psychology: a breath of fresh air?

    Psychologist

    (2015)
  • J.D. Creswell et al.

    How does mindfulness training affect health? A mindfulness-stress-buffering account

    Curr Dir Psychol Sci

    (2014)
  • J.C. Felver et al.

    The effects of mindfulness-based intervention on children’s attention regulation

    J Atten Disord

    (2017)
  • R. Becerra et al.

    Can specific attentional skills be modified with mindfulness training for novice practitioners?

    Curr Psychol

    (2017)
  • J.H. Austin

    Our ordinary sense of self: different aspects of ‘no-self’ during states of absorption and kensho

  • Y. Dor-Ziderman et al.

    Mindfulness-induced selflessness: a MEG neurophenomenological study

    Front Hum Neurosci

    (2013)
  • J.R. Lindahl

    Why right mindfulness might not be right for mindfulness

    Mindfulness

    (2015)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text