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MULTIPLE IDENTITIES VIA SPIRITUALITY, HISTORIES AND CULTURAL RE-PRESENTATIONS 147The cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish has pioneeredintegrating mindfulness practices as part of apreventive and rehabilitative health care model 19 (Fig.13A). Dr. Herbert Benson has a similar model 20 inwhich he integrates “mind-body therapies” within thewestern medicine framework (Figure 13B).There are safety issues and precautions to be observedin yoga and meditation training. Certain physicalaspects of hatha yoga undertaken in a regular fitnessclass are contra-indicated for people with hypertensionor for those with spinal injuries. There are variouslevels of hatha yoga training that are appropriate forpeople of various health conditions, and ages. Intensemeditation training may not be appropriate withpeople with severe psychosis. It is now common formeditation retreat organizers to request prior healthprofiles of participants.How does this positive picture of the health benefits ofmindfulness practice fit into the lives of economicallydeprived working men and women of Asia and the restof the world? Even the Buddha found the “MiddleWay” after finding out that extreme ascetic practicewas not helpful in mind cultivation. A nourishedbrain/mind and body is necessary for mind-bodytraining.Figure 13. (A) Spectrum Model of Dr. Dean Ornish; (B) Three-Legged Stool model of Dr. Herbert Benson. Both models emphasizeintegrating mind-body interventions with conventional medicine and other healthy lifestyle modifications.3. Mindfulness in Education:The tradition of basic mindfulness training is broughtinto the classroom by Schoeberlein and Sheth (2009)in their publication Mindful Teaching and TeachingMindfulness, “offering hands-on tools, exercises, andinsights tempered by the voice of experience that helpto build relationships with students and engage themin learning, and that will renew teacher’s own energy,passion and commitment”.Fontana and Slack (1997) in Teaching Meditation toChildren: The Practical Guide to the Use and benefits ofMeditation Techniques, suggest that the practice “giveseven very young children power over their thinkingand their emotions through enhanced selfunderstandingand self-acceptance, helpingadolescents navigate the emotional peaks and valleys ofthe transition from childhood to adulthood”.A Mindfulness in Education Network was begun in2001, organized by United States-based educators andstudents of the Vietnamese Zen monk Thich NhatHanh, for “the purpose of facilitating communicationamong educators, parents, students, and othersinterested in promoting mindfulness in educationalsettings”. The network has organized annualconferences on mindfulness in education since 2008. 21A similar group, the Association for Mindfulness inEducation, is committed to promoting mindfulnessresearch and to providing “support for mindfulnesstraining as a component of K-12 education”. 22 Theefforts at bringing mindfulness education to schools,colleges and universities in the United States have beenchronicled by mindfulnet.org. 23 Learning from theefforts of a pilot mindfulness training experiment in aprimary school in California in 2007, many schoolstried out a similar program under a CommunityPartnership for Mindfulness in Education, whichevolved later into Mindful Schools, with a vision to“transform education through mindfulness”. 24The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows