Wellbeing through Meditation Techniques:
Will the Catholic Church Market its Hidden Treasure?
Last month, as part of my present doctoral research project in the psychology of religion I attended a workshop on ‘Mindfulness’. The one-day workshop that was held at the Maudsley Hospital, London, was led by a renowned American scholar and practitioner of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Dr. Allan Wallace. The day’s events consisted of practice sessions, and discussions on the possible use of Mindfulness techniques in maintaining and restoring health – physical and mental. The small hall was crowded with Mindfulness-enthusiasts including medical doctors from the Maudsley Hospital and researchers from the psychiatry research department of King’s College. As the only Asian in that hall, given my previous background in Buddhism and training in the Vipassana technique of meditation, I could not help asking myself: why all this enthusiasm about an Oriental tradition among Western scholars? What has become of all […]