Terry Hyland says,

Yes, there is some solid evidence about the effectiveness of mindfulness practices in schools and workplaces – as I note in my book Mindfulness and Learning (Springer, 2011) – but this is only positive when it is informed by moral principles underpinning practice concerned with relieving suffering and enhancing mind/body well-being. Applications in the health and social care sector are ideally and essentially remedial, thus directly connecting them with foundational mindfulness principles concerned with relieving suffering. In education and work on the other hand, there has been a tendency for this core transformational function to be co-opted in order to achieve specific operational objectives, and such pragmatic purposes have obscured the links with the foundational moral principles. In education, such practical aims have included enhanced self-esteem/control and improved focus/attention span and, in the workplace, reduction of employee stress, lower rates of absenteeism and enhanced communication skills. All this seems quite some way from the ethical values which Kabat-Zinn and mainstream mindfulness practitioners would ideally wish to advocate.

Pointer from Tyler Cowen. Read the whole Terry Hyland interview. Or maybe you should just sing along with REM.

You’re sharpening stones, walking on coals, to improve your business acumen

A cynic might see Hyland’s goal as trying to protecting mainstream mindfulness practitioners from low-price competition.