Mindfulness conference in Northampton

Well, this weekend the University hosts the BPS Transpersonal Psychology Section's 18th annual conference, on the theme: "Contextualising Mindfulness: Sacred and Secular". Yours truly has been roped in as the "Arrangements Chair" (organiser basically), so here's hoping the whole thing doesn't come crashing down around my ears...! You find find more details on the conference website: bit.ly/TPconf2014.

I'm really looking forward to some of the speakers, and to reflecting critically (and yet I hope open-heartedly) on the secular 'mindfulness' surge in Western culture, healthcare, business etc.

While I welcome the use of mindfulness in most of these contexts - honestly, how coudl I not at least to some extent?! - I do have some concerns. This conference is about asking questions about how secularised mindfulness is being applied, and whether this secularisation involves throwing babies out with bathwater. Questions include, as Prof Lancaster suggests on the conference site, "To what extent is mindfulness practice as promulgated in therapeutic and social contexts true to its roots in the spiritual traditions? Have the bounds of the term ‘spiritual’ become so elastic as to be of little value? What impact is the widespread incorporation of what is at core a spiritual practice having on contemporary society? And is the popularization of meditation practice leading to a distortion of the root traditions from which it has been extracted?"

So, assuming my lack of organisational skills don't stop the whole thing in its tracks, I'm looking forward to a fascinating weekend.