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Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad?

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Factual: Health & Wellbeing

05/01/2015

BBC Radio 4 - Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad?

How a Buddhist meditation technique became a cure-all for the ills of modern life.

Buddhist 'mindfulness' meditation is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Is it just another health fad? And how do Buddhists feel about it being secularised and commercialised?

In little more than a few decades mindfulness has gone from being a specialist element of Buddhist teaching to the front cover of Time magazine. It's the must have app for the stars, courses in it are advertised in the back of all the glossies, businesses use it to reduce staff stress and boost productivity. It's even prescribed on the NHS for anxiety and depression. This is the story of "mindfulness" - from its roots in the Buddhist practice of meditation to today's multi-billion dollar, worldwide industry. Devoted followers hail it as a cure-all for the ills of modern life. Or is this just another health fad, destined for disparagement, like homeopathy? And what do Buddhists feel about their heritage being westernised, secularised and commercialised? 

Presenter: Emma Barnett. Producer: Phil Pegum.

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