Secular Mindfulness as Skilful Means (Upaya-kaushalya)

A question arose in a group of Indian Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) trainee teachers I am working with. They are from the poor, ex-Dalit communities of northern India who converted en masse to Buddhism in the mid-1950s to escape the oppression of the Hindu caste system whilst maintaining an important spiritual dimension in their community. The question presented to me was: “How is this MBSR meditation different to the meditation we do as Buddhists?”.

This question prompted the arising of an image in my mind of the Buddhist Wheel of Life with its 6 Realms (Fig. 1). This image is found at the doorways of many northern Indian and Tibetan Buddhist temples and meditation halls. I knew that these trainee MBSR teachers would know and understand the symbolism it represented. So, in reply, I asked them to recall the image of the Wheel of Life with its six realms, reminding them of its meaning; the ideas and practices taught by the Buddha were unfailingly adapted for the context he was in, and this adaptability is reflected by this symbol. In each of the 6 Realms, you can see a tiny Buddha holding out and offering different gifts appropriate to alleviate the different kinds of suffering represented there. So, the suggestion made to the trainees was to perhaps view MBSR, and its various other MBI descendants, such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), as offerings to help people not wishing to engage in religion or, more specifically, in the teachings of the Buddha. The discussion continued, exploring if MBSR might be seen as a contemporary skilful means (upaya-kaushalya), the practice of adapting one’s message and methodology to the people you are trying to help. Thus, highly stressed people, blinded by busy, frantic lives, or people shrunken by repeated depressions, pain or illness may not be so likely to seek out a Buddhist meditation centre. Or people numbed or shocked by some of the frequently reported darker aspects of religion may not wish to place their trust in yet another one. In addition, the swelling tide of materialism and popular scientific reductionism might also reduce the footfall into Buddhist meditation halls! Many people today may not be able or may not wish to engage directly in the Buddhist language of mindfulness. But they may well be suffering in different ways and the fundamental intention, shared by contemporary (secular) mindfulness teachers and Buddhist’s alike is to ease suffering…all suffering, whatsoever.

The question raised in this MBSR teacher training group reflected a tension they had experienced from others in their community about whether contemporary Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) represents a possible watering down of the Buddha’s teachings (Dharma). So, I was able to say that this was a familiar question, cropping up frequently in “the West” and as a new MBI teacher it is important to consider how to engage with such points of view (Kabat-Zinn, 2017; Purser et al., 2016; Thompson, 2020; Wilks, 2014).

This group of new-Buddhist MBSR trainees was aware of both the literal and metaphorical meanings of the image of the six realms of suffering: from the extremes of the so-called hell and hungry ghost realms through to the subtle suffering of the so-called god realm. The group nodded and smiled, visibly pleased that perhaps the MBSR practices that they were finding so helpful did indeed fit their understanding of the Buddha’s teachings; a vision of unbiased compassion for all living beings in all their various realms of suffering.

It is only in the so-called human realm, usually depicted in the upper left segment of the wheel, that the teachings of the Buddha, including mindfulness, are seen to be offered as a gift to ease suffering. This gift is represented by an image of a meditator or a person studying or worshiping. In the other 5 realms, the gift changes according to what is most helpful in that context. Hence, in the hell realms, usually found in the lower segment of the wheel, the image depicts intense pain, and the Buddha here offers a healing balm to ease this pain. Similarly, in the realm of the hungry ghosts, usually found in the lower right segment of the wheel, the images represent starvation caused by neurotic greed that turns all that is ingested into razor-sharp food; here what the Buddha offers is nourishment that can be swallowed and digested. The asuras or warring gods, usually found in the upper right segment, are offered the sword of discernment based on wisdom, rather than their own weapons of power. Then, in the animal realm, usually in the lower left segment, the images depict the suffering caused by ignorance and struggles for survival; here they are offered culture, represented by a book. Lastly, in the god realm, found at the top of the wheel, the images depict the suffering caused by complacency masking the existential situation of human life; here, they are offered a song of impermanence to remind their sensitive ears that all things will eventually come to an end…even their privileged lifestyle. The main idea emerging from this symbol is that the Dharma is fundamentally compassionate and that the means used to deliver this compassion varies skilfully to match the needs of the context within which it is manifesting. A possible extension to this might be to see the various forms of MBIs as themselves expressions of this principle of skilful means. Thus, Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) could be seen to operate in the hungry ghost realm of neurotic craving, whilst MBCT could be seen as a response to the cold hell realm of depression, and MBSR to be meeting the suffering of stress in the so-called human realm.

Skilful means (upaya-kaushalya) is of enormous importance in Buddhism. It is a concept, frequently demonstrated by the Buddha, with many examples in both the texts of early Buddhism and in colourful examples from the Mahayana and Vajrayana of later Buddhism. The implication is that, even if a technique, method, or view is not ultimately “true” in the highest sense, it may still be an expedient practice to bring the practitioner closer to the truth and so ease the suffering caused by being out of harmony with it. The Dharma (the teachings as communicated by the Buddha) is depicted as a raft, a means of crossing the difficult seas of suffering (Alagaddupama Sutta, Middle Length Discourses). The raft is not the Truth but a means to arrive at a lived experience that reveals this Truth (at this point I would ask any post-modernist readers to have a little patience with the elitist language of Truth!). An example of this skill-in-means occurs in the very first teachings after enlightenment. In the Ariyapariyesana Sutta, from the Middle Length Discourses of the Pali Canon, we hear how the newly enlightened Buddha despaired of trying to communicate his non-dualistic experience, realising that language, being dualistic, simply was not up to it, saying his experience of enlightenment was “beyond the scope of words and reason”; his words provide an invaluable pointer to realise the truth but are not the truth itself. Thus, the Buddha’s teachings, being provisional, are neither fixed nor dogmatic. Rather, being a skilful means-to-an-end (upaya) his teachings are, like Socrates’ celebrated dialectical method, dynamic and contextual (post-modernists may now relax a little!).

We are also told in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta that the newly enlightened Buddha resolved to try to teach his path to enlightenment through living and practising alongside a handful of his pre-enlightenment companions who, as he put it, “had but little dust in their eyes”; in time, they gradually came to embody the truth he had realised. But what of the others with considerably more dust in their eyes? The Buddha, faced with the daunting task of rendering his teaching accessible to everyone, devised teaching strategies that could equally accommodate “beings with keen faculties and those with dull faculties”. One solution was to teach meditation and reflection in a framework of understanding that enabled individuals to discover enlightenment, and so freedom from all levels of suffering, for themselves, in their own time. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta — Middle Length Discourses) is one of the more well known of these strategies.

An iconic and moving illustration of skill-in-means is provided by the way the Buddha tried to ease the intense suffering of a grieving mother called Kisa (Gotami Sutta, Sutta Nipata). Kisa Gotami was the wife of a wealthy man living in Savatthi (a city in the region that is now North India). She had been married for some time and attracted intense scorn and isolation for not producing any children. So, you might imagine her relief and delight when she finally gave birth. But a few months later, tragically, her baby died, and, in her grief, she wandered the streets, dead baby in arms, unable to accept the truth of her baby’s death, searching for a doctor or medicine. Desperate, she asked if anyone could help her baby and, many seeing the small grey corpse, thought she had lost her mind. Then, an old man told her to go and ask the Buddha, a holy man living on the edge of town. The Buddha listened carefully and then told her that he could bring the child back to life if she could bring him some mustard seeds. Kisa smiled. It would be easy to do this because every kitchen in the town had plenty of these. But as she turned to go the Buddha added: “the seeds must come from a family home where no one had died”. She went from house to house, but to her despair, she could not find any mustard seeds from a house that had not suffered the death of a family member. Desperation grew and grew. She met family after family who related their grief and losses on the doorstep. Finally, the realisation struck her that there was, and is, no house free from death; and no one is free from the grief of death. She returned to the Buddha, who comforted her and saw that she was now ready to hear the truth of impermanence. From that time onwards she practised the teachings of the Buddha and finally became free from suffering.

From a strictly ethical standpoint, one might argue that the Buddha had diluted or distorted truth and yet, from a pragmatic or psychological perspective, the Buddha had used a skilful means to help this poor woman find empathy and, through this, acceptance of tremendously difficult suffering. This adapting of the truth can be found in all the world religions, sometimes expressed through parables or sometimes through action and philosophical argument.

Traditional mindfulness is taught within a very detailed and supportive context. One of the earliest frameworks of the Buddha’s teachings is the Three Fold Path (Culavedalla Sutta, Middle Length Discourses) which outlines the path to enlightenment starting with the practice of ethics before moving into meditation (including mindfulness) and then wisdom (insight). Secular uses of mindfulness (MBIs) may seem light with respect to how explicitly they refer to, or include, supporting frameworks of ethics or wisdom. Mindfulness within its original context becomes the vehicle for knowing directly there is no enduring, fixed self and that everything, whilst intricately interconnected and interdependent, is conditioned and impermanent (a root teaching described extensively in The Middle Length Discourses). This knowing addresses the more subtle existential suffering caused by the delusion of permanence. However, although not explicit, the seeds of these important (even vital) contextual frameworks are included in MBI programs such as MBSR and MBCT. The book, “Mindfulness, Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning Origins and Applications”, by Jon Kabat-Zinn the father of contemporary applications of mindfulness, explores the intersection of Buddhist psychology and philosophy with modern medicine and science in a rigorous, scholarly fashion. Secular mindfulness can be seen as a starting point from which with just “a little less dust in their eyes”, participants may seek out more complete teachings and contexts to ease their suffering. The image or symbol of the Wheel of Life, offered to my Buddhist Indian trainee teachers helped them see MBSR as a contemporary turning of the great Wheel of the Dharma (Dharma Chakra) and not as a dilute sticking plaster for suffering. Every thousand-mile journey starts with a single step.

This somewhat heuristic approach to a very complex subject has limitations that include the possible loose interpretation of terms and concepts used in the discussion and simply the constraints of language. For example, mindfulness is represented as a skill-in-means (upaya-kaushalya) itself and so suggesting that its various adapted MBI formats are also skilful means is perhaps superfluous. Also, there is the danger of a superficial interpretation of the idea of skilful means; without a deep, embodied understanding of the wisdom and compassion underlying the origins of mindfulness, contemporary adaptations of it as upayas for the sufferings we encounter will not be a skilful means but simply means-to-an-end; “ends” that may not be as helpful as they could be.

To summarise, the connections between contemporary mindfulness approaches (MBIs) and Buddhist teachings are not always very well known to the people they are being taught to. This is true even though the father of these contemporary approaches, Jon Kabat-Zinn has urged those who teach them to be very well versed in these teachings (Kabat-Zinn, 2011). Because of a strong intention for MBIs to be a compassionate skilful means, offering ways to ease the suffering of all people in our increasingly challenging world, explicit references to its Buddhist origins are often carefully avoided. The intention from the outset of contemporary MBIs was to fully use the wisdom and the compassion the Buddhist tradition offers without the risk of excluding anyone for whom religion, or the lack of an explicitly contemporary evidence-based approach might present an obstacle. But, without remembering how these approaches are a contemporary manifestation of skill-in-means they may, to some, seem disingenuous or even disrespectful to the tradition they owe so much to. Perhaps we can let Jon Kabat-Zinn have a last word.

[M]indfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) was developed as one of a possibly infinite number of skillful means for bringing the dharma into mainstream settings…. It can be hugely helpful to have a strong personal grounding in the Buddhadharma and its teachings...In fact, it is virtually essential and indispensable for teachers of MBSR and other mindfulness-based interventions. Yet little or none of it can be brought into the classroom except in essence. And if the essence is absent, then whatever one is doing or thinks one is doing, it is certainly not mindfulness-based in the way we understand the term. (Kabat-Zinn, 2011)