Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Toward More Authentic Mindfulness Practice and Teaching

In recent years, a dialogue has emerged concerning the extent to which mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) teach and embody the essence of mindfulness according to longstanding conceptualizations of the technique. Traditionally, mindfulness was an integral component of a broad spectrum of contemplative practices, that when practiced collectively and correctly, reflected a rounded path of spiritual practice (Shonin et al. 2014). However, as part of its recent integration into various applied settings, it appears that some MBIs have largely isolated mindfulness from the techniques and practice principles that traditionally supported it. In such cases, a question that arises is whether mindfulness should still be called “mindfulness”, or whether in some of its modern interventional forms, it has been transposed into an “attention-based psychological technique” (Van Gordon et al. 2016). …