Buddhism in Contemporary Society: A Case of Modern Mindfulness

"Mindfulness" is no longer an alien phrase these days to a western ear. Ubiquitous mindfulness-related therapies, masters and books already declared its undeniable prevalence in our society. However, this concept has never truly cast off its mystic veil. To start with, what is mindfulness really? What allows it to attract innumerable advocates all over the world, including Germany, where the cultural and religious settings are completely different? What modern spiritual  needs does the popularity of mindfulness reflect? Motivated by the urge to answer these questions, the proposal (see attached file) will be divided into three parts, each corresponding to a sub-topic that we'll explore in detail. Respective methodologies are also included in each section. The ambition of this project is not only to present how Modern Mindfulness has evolved into its present image, but also to provide fruitful resources for a systematic reflection upon  contemporary civilization, including and not limited to critical thinking on individualism, secularism and capitalism. At the same time, we also seek to offer a  new attempt in Buddhist Studies with contemporaryapplications of Buddhist ideals in mind.

Forschungsgruppe

Lanting Liu

Xuanhui Zhu

Jiangtian Wu

Mentor

Michael Zimmermann