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148 Panel 44. Mindfulness in LeadershipInspired by the successful documentation of the healthbenefits of mindfulness training in controlled clinicalsettings, and their gradual acceptance in theeducational arena, mindfulness training has also beenintroduced in the arena of leadership training. Carroll(2007), a mindfulness practitioner/ trainer andbusiness management consultant, has for examplepublished The Mindful Leader: Awakening YourNatural Management Skills through MindfulnessMeditation. The book covers a wide range ofmindfulness-related topics related to training staff andmanagers of organizations to develop innate leadershiptalents. Finally, the Center for Mindfulness of theUniversity of Massachusetts has pioneered programsin mindfulness in leadership training. 25ConclusionThis study provided me with insights into howmindfulness practice and cognitive frameworks mayhave evolved within the historical context of greatdissatisfaction with human suffering brought about byintense human rivalries and violence, from which arosean “axial age of spirituality” when ancient sages aspiredto give meaning to human existence.Despite the technological wonders that have shapedindustrialized countries of the Western hemisphere,and the newly industrializing countries of Asia andSouth America, and even after the end of the ColdWar period, the planet continues to be faced witheconomic, political, and cultural-spiritual crises, and acommon ecological crisis - climate change. The visionof sustaining a model of continuous economicexpansion and consumption has become blurred, if ithas not gone into a decline, with the traditional majoreconomic powers apparently reaching an economicplateau. New economic superpowers such as China areemerging, while Western powers have conspired tostabilize aligned dictatorial client states in the MiddleEast while supporting the de-stabilization of nonaligneddictatorial states. Religious “fundamentalist”resistance to the neo-liberal economic powerstructures in some parts of the world has spawned nonstateterrorism which tries to match the barbarity ofstate-supported terrorism of small and large powernationstates. Indeed, the planet appears to be enteringanother crisis period.To answer my principle question, how relevant ismindfulness practice in the light of these numerouscrises confronting the planet?1. Mindfulness practice can be a tool to recoverthe original intentions of ancient sages ofvarious spiritual traditions: to continuallyrevisit the inner resources necessary for aspirituality of compassion, which evolved topacify and temper the human species amidviolence and warfare. As the Dalai Lama oncesaid: “This is my simple religion - there is noneed for temples, no need for complicatedphilosophy. Our own brain, our own heart, isour temple. The philosophy is kindness”. In thisway, mindfulness practice is also a way todevelop a link across theistic and non-theisticworldviews, to help improve the humancondition.2. In the past, mindfulness practice had becomeconfined to monastic communities in Asia,isolated from the mainstream of society. Thechallenge, time and again, has been how toreengage mindfulness to influence socialstructural transformation. We have seenattempts at engaged mindfulness practice insome Asian countries; such as during the IndianIndependence struggle from Great Britain,during the Vietnam war when peacemovements arose to try to stop the civil war, inThailand through the engaged Buddhadasainspiredsocial movements, during theAmerican Black civil rights movement of the1960s, in the continued adherence to nonviolentresistance to the Burmese dictatorship,and even in the Philippines through peoplepowermass movements. Inspired by Easternmystic’s traditional adherence to non-violence,similar movements have emerged in the pastand present in other parts of the world,including in the recent Occupy Wall StreetProtests against corporate greed. How canmindfulness practice further strengthen suchsocial movements for change?3. The advances in mindfulness research andpractice in the scientific, medical andeducational community in the West and in Asiahave helped further the adoption ofmindfulness practices in non-Buddhistcountries. These advances can contribute to theconscious revival of mindfulness practices.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows