5 DOI: 10.4312/as.2016.4.2.5-9
Introduction
Jana S. ROŠKER*
In the past few decades, the meditation technique of mindfulness has been gai-
ning popularity in the West with regard to of promoting psychophysical health 
and well-being. This originally Buddhist concept has also been investigated and 
widely applied as a very effective tool in numerous fields, such as psychology, ethics, 
cognitive neuroscience, psychotherapy, counseling and education. However, de-
spite its strong social relevance, current research into applications of mindfulness 
lacks appropriate theoretical models. In the last decade only a few meta-studies on 
mindfulness research have been carried out, identifying the main methodological 
problems. As such, comprehensive theoretical presentations of mindfulness are 
still required, positioning it into its scientific, epistemological, ethical and phe-
nomenological framework. Besides, numerous scholars, who criticize the ways in 
which the original Asian concept of mindfulness has been (mis)construed, have 
recently questioned its explosive growth in popularity and the often superficial 
methods of transferring mindfulness into Western cultures and societies. They es-
pecially point to the dangers of “mystifying mindfulness” by withdrawing it from 
its traditional frameworks and transforming it into a decontextualized superficial 
“self-help” method. 
In order to increase the knowledge and understanding of these ancient Asian 
techniques and to improve their application in contemporary society, the pres-
ent issue of the journal Asian Studies focuses on the concept of mindfulness, its 
traditional and modern definitions and interpretations, as well as its current use 
in scientific, psychotherapeutic and philosophical theoretical contexts. The contri-
butions collected in this special issue are thus not only limited to investigations 
of the philological, epistemological, ethical and phenomenological frameworks of 
this notion, as represented in classical Buddhist literature. Instead, they also aim 
to relate these conceptualizations and practices to contemporary scientific, thera-
peutic and educational contexts.
The premises upon which modern science is based (as well as the methodological 
procedures that emerge from it), are in their essence still part of the unquestionable 
* Jana S. ROŠKER, Professor, Department of Asian Studies,
 Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. 
 jana.rosker[at]ff.uni-lj.si

6 Jana S. Rošker: Introduction
discourses of the Western academic tradition. Here, we have noted the need to 
revitalize the classic categories and concepts of Asian theories. As such, the basic 
epistemological methodology applied in this issue avoids the use of incommensu-
rable methods that attempt to study Asian cultures through the lens of Western 
concepts and categories.
Because the modern applications of these techniques are a rather new phenom-
enon, we would also like to propose a highly relevant and original contribution 
to this new area by developing novel links and forming new connections between 
the contemporary scientific research on the one hand, and classical Asian philoso-
phical and religious discourses on the other. 
Within the broader context outlined above, several authors of the present volume 
focus in particular upon the position of mindfulness in cognitive processes: its 
pragmatic functions, general characteristics and ethical implications. The latter 
are especially relevant for contemporary globalized societies, which are largely 
trapped within a network of axiological problems, linked to alienation and the so-
called “vacuum of values” which has emerged as an undesirable side effect of the 
omnipresent post-capitalistic and neo-liberal pursuit of profit. As we will see, the 
notion of ethics is also very relevant in relation to the recently introduced distinc-
tions between the “secular” and originally religious notion of mindfulness, which 
raises several axiological questions.
The structure of this special issue is based on three broad areas. The first investi-
gates traditional developments of the notion of mindfulness in India and China, 
the second focuses on the problems and possibilities of its intercultural transmis-
sion, and the last deals with diverse applications of mindfulness based meditation 
techniques in the realm of psychology and cognitive studies. 
The volume opens with Tamara Ditrich’s article Situating the Concept of Mindful-
ness in the Theravāda Tradition. Her contribution examines the theoretical back-
ground of the concept of mindfulness (sati) as presented in the early Buddhist 
sources, recorded in Theravāda Buddhism. It shows how mindfulness has a special 
role as a component on the Buddhist path to liberation from suffering (dukkha) 
and how it is integrated into the soteriological and ethical goals of Buddhist prac-
tice. This paper is followed by Jana S. Rošker’s article entitled Mindfulness and its 
Absence – The Development of the Term Mindfulness and the Meditation Techniques 
Connected to it from Daoist Classics to the Sinicized Buddhism of the Chan School. It 
deals with various modifications of the term mindfulness on its long journey from 
India to China. First, the author introduces the central sinicized meditation prac-
tices derived from Indian Buddhism. Afterwards, she focuses on the development 
of the original etymological meaning of the term mindfulness, especially upon the 

7 Asian Studies IV (XX), 2 (2016), pp. 5–9
later semantic connotations of the concept nian 念, which represents a Chinese 
synonym for the term sati (Pāli) or smrti (Sanskrit), from which it is translated 
into awareness (in most Indo-European languages) or mindfulness (in English).
The second area examined in this journal is covered by four articles. This section 
begins with Sebastijan Vöröš’s Sitting with the Demons – Mindfulness, Suffering, 
and Existential Transformation, an article in which the author tries to to critical-
ly evaluate various objections directed towards the application of mindfulness 
in contemporary societies. First, he analyses the claim that de-contextualized 
approaches may have serious ethical consequences, and he then explores the sug-
gestion that it may be spurious to construe mindfulness meditation as (merely) 
a form of relaxation and/or an attention-enhancing technique, as it is some-
times accompanied by various negative or dangerous phenomena. The author 
concludes that mindfulness meditation can be seen as an important element, but 
by no means the sole component, of a broader process of overcoming existential 
angst, and that the goals of such processes cannot be reduced to relaxation or 
enhanced attention, but should rather be understood as a form (or possibility) of 
radical existential transformation. This article is followed by Andrej Ule’s con-
tribution entitled Mindfulness and Self-Deliverance to Pure Presence, which is also 
founded upon a critical analysis of contemporary representations of mindful-
ness. Proceeding from the original Mahayana Buddhist notion, the author dis-
tinguishes its original form, which clings to various methods and differentiations, 
and the higher form, which is occurring in Now-ness beyond anything that one 
achieves and does. He shows that within this framework, meditative concentra-
tion always involves both the internalisation of experiencing and an awareness 
of what is going on around and within us. In this sense, practising mindfulness 
implies passing beyond effort, practice, aims and goals, and beyond the dualism 
of bondage and liberation.
The next article in this section on the problems and possibilities of intercultur-
al transmission is Hashi Hisakis’s The Logic of “Mutual Transmission” in Huayan 
and Zen Buddhist Philosophy – Toward the Logic of Co-existence for a Globalized 
World. In this paper, the author deals with an important methodological question 
underlying the intercultural transformations and interactions of originally Bud-
dhist concepts. She critically questions the notion, which is still common in many 
discourses on Asian studies throughout the Western world, that there was less 
“philosophy”, “logic” and “rationality” in the history of East Asian Cultures before 
the beginning of their modernization. This prejudice is explored through the lens 
of Huayan and Zen Buddhist Philosophy, and the author clearly states the impor-
tance of its alternative model of logic, which can be, according to her, be denoted 
as “logicus spiritus (心の論理)”. This section ends with Nadja Furlan Štante’s paper 

8 Jana S. Rošker: Introduction
on Mindfulness as a Path of Women’s Empowerment, in which she tries to establish a 
theoretical connection between social mindfulness as a path of female empower-
ment, and feminist spirituality within the concept of the interconnectedness and 
interrelatedness of all beings.
The last section of this issue contains three essays dealing with the concept of 
mindfulness within contemporary psychological and cognitive studies. In his 
contribution entitled Applications of Mindfulness in Psychotherapy – Contemporary 
Dilemmas, Borut Škodlar focuses on the central dilemmas, problems and con-
troversies in the fast, almost fanatical spread of mindfulness-based techniques, 
which, according to him, compensate for a certain deficit or lack of reflection 
in modern Western societies, and is based on an idealization of “Oriental Wis-
dom.” The main purpose of his paper is to contribute to the critical reflection in 
studying and applying mindfulness in psychotherapy. Anja Zalta’s Contribution 
of Buddhist Mindfulness to the Transformation of Conflicts – Dependent Origination 
(paticca-samuppāda) and Deconstruction of Identity, on the other hand, examines 
the modern concept of mindfulness with regard to conflict and transformation. 
The author points to the fact that in traditional Buddhist understanding conflict 
is the result of defensiveness and misconceptions. In this context, the main pur-
pose of mindfulness is to achieve a lasting, radical change in perception, which 
suspends habitual processes and thus enables identification with the sensory and 
mental experiences of an isolated, radically individualized notion of the Self. 
The last article in this special issue is entitled Parallels between Mindfulness and 
First-Person Research of Consciousness and was written by Olga Markič and Urban 
Kordeš, who consider the possibilities of using mindfulness as a scientific method 
in the field of cognitive sciences. Their paper offers some interesting suggestions 
as to how these two discourses might benefit one another, also placing stress upon 
the ethical aspects of this possible synthesis. The authors thus point to the ways in 
which Buddhism might contribute to scientific research, and vice versa.
Most of the authors of the present volume are Slovenian researchers working in 
different disciplines, reaching from the humanities, through social and cognitive 
sciences, to medicine and psychology. Some of the papers collected in this volume 
represent translated and reworked elaborations of articles that have been written 
in Slovene for an anthology on a similar topic (i.e., Mindfulness: Tradition and 
Contemporary Approaches), which was published as a special issue of the Slovene 
academic journal Poligrafi. Precisely because of the significance and the wide im-
pact of the research results published in that journal in Slovenia, the editorial 
board has decided to include these papers in the present volume, in order to make 
them accessible to a broader international academic public. 

9 Asian Studies IV (XX), 2 (2016), pp. 5–9
The findings of the research presented in this issue, originally pertaining to dif-
ferent theoretical disciplines within sciences and the humanities, will certainly 
provide some valuable strategies for a more successful integration of mindfulness 
into various scientific, educational and psychotherapeutic practices. A crucial goal 
of the present issue is thus also to open new possibilities for creating innovative 
forms of improved, safe, effective and reliable techniques of mindfulness-based 
meditation and related practices. We also hope that the findings collected in this 
volume can contribute to greater social responsibility and engagement, as well as 
to a more responsible attitude towards social and ethical issues. 
Jana S. Rošker, Chief Editor