Mindfulness and Indian Buddhist conceptions of unconscious processes

The modern mindfulness movement often cites early Buddhist texts that outline its basic practices. These texts, though, depict a different kind of practice, one which involves ongoing nonconscious dispositions that underlie and give rise to recurrent affective and cognitive responses to similar stimuli. In later Indian Buddhist traditions, especially the Yogācāra school, these patterns were investigated and systematically articulated in a concept of our unconscious construction of a common, 'species-specific' world, which included the influences of language and culture. By acknowledging our 'cultural unconscious,' this model could augment the depth and relevance of the mindfulness movement in our contemporary world.