Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Mindfulness Studies
First Advisor
Dr. Melissa Jean
Second Advisor
Dr. Andrew Olendzki
Abstract
While Western mindfulness practice is indeed beneficial for many participants, the research now clearly demonstrates that for some meditators, there are attendant potential risks. These potential risks to practitioners require a level of care from those individuals (and corporations) that disseminate mindfulness practice. Historically, in traditional Buddhist practice, mindfulness was but one of the eight factors on the Noble Eightfold Path. An important component of traditional practice strongly relies on ethics in the delivery of the practice. A formalized standard of care for modern, secular mindfulness practices, and a method to implement and enforce that standard, will greatly enhance safety and mitigate risks for both practitioners and teachers. Given the longstanding use of the “do no harm standard” in medicine, and the formalized governmental, regulatory, and licensure procedures applicable to medical and therapeutic practices, these fields offer the closest conventions upon which to base a proposed standard of care and a structure to implement and enforce standards for secular mindfulness practice and mindfulness-based interventions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Falick, Michael, "Mindfulness and the Need to Minimize the Risk of Harm: A Proposal to Implement and Enforce Standards for Secular Mindfulness Practice" (2020). Mindfulness Studies Theses. 33.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/mindfulness_theses/33
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Buddhist Studies Commons, Counselor Education Commons, Legal Theory Commons, Public Policy Commons
