CENTRE FOR EAST WEST CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC STUDIES (CEWCES)

DIRECTORS

Dr James Ferguson

B.A. (Hons) (Macq), PhD (Bond)

Dr R. James Ferguson's main teaching area is international relations, regionalism, and globalisation. He is the Director of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies within the Faculty.

Along with extensive travel and research in Asia, the Pacific and Europe, James has been involved in teaching, research, consulting, submissions to government, and publishing in International Relations, East-West Studies, Strategic Studies and Asian culture.

James conducts research in the areas of Asian, Eurasia, European and Australasian International Relations, Eurasian studies, Chinese cultural systems, human and comprehensive security, Islamic governance, and regional organisations.

He is a member of the International Studies Association (ISA), the refereed International Institute for Strategic Studies (the IISS, London), the International Institute of Development Studies (IIDS) and for several years served as a Council member of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (Queensland). He regularly presents at international conferences in Southeast Asia, China, Japan, India, Europe and Australia. He has received grants and fellowships from a number of sources including the ARC, Ford-IDSS, Bond University, and the Visiting Researchers Program, run by the Institute of Liberal Arts, Walailak University (Thailand).

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Dr Rosita Dellios

BA, PhD (Deakin)

Rosita has been at Bond University since it opened in 1989. She is also a founding member of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies. Before becoming an academic, Rosita was a journalist, including foreign correspondent in Asia, where she lived and worked for a number of years. As an academic, she visits China on a regular basis to maintain her expertise and also travels regularly to Southeast Asian countries to conduct research and attend conferences on regional relations.

Author of one of the few definitive books on China's military, Modern Chinese Defence Strategy (Macmillan, 1989; St. Martins, 1990), Rosita specialises in Chinese defence and foreign policy. She has written extensively and spoken at numerous international conferences on this area, as well as Eastern Asian international relations generally. She has also written on future trends in international relations, with particular emphasis on geopolitical and economic security. Her analysis is underpinned by attention to cultural factors.

Her research interests are China's defence and foreign policies; East Asian regionalism; and an exploration of a new "mandalic" regionalism shaped by globalisation. The last of these comprises original research in which she investigates globalisation through the development of a mandala model for international relations. To this end, she has published numerous articles.

MISSION

Research

To promote research in these areas within the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences and others at Bond University.
To promote research and dialogue through regular contacts with Australian, Asian and international academics.
To promote dialogue through attendance at local, national and international conferences.
To develop alternative research methodologies in international relations.
To research the role of culture in economic, strategic and political change.
To provide regular avenues of publication on these themes.
To make this research available to business, government and the wider public, both in Australia and overseas.

Education and Community

To run seminars and lectures to raise community awareness.
To develop educational packages for use in undergraduate and postgraduate study.
To provide opportunities for emerging as well as established overseas scholars to visit Australia and Bond University.
To network with community, ethnic and international organisations.
To provide informed public commentary and submissions to government and media where appropriate.
To help provide guidance for postgraduate research through existing higher degree programmes at Bond University.

Mindfulness: The Eastern Philosophy Tradition

Why Mindfulness?

It is natural for a mind given to reason to make inquiry of its tasks, ‘Why mindfulness?’ Why ought we to practice mindfulness? Of what profit is it to us?

Well, life is a misery, surely you would agree. Even if we have in our grasp a source of happiness, rarely does it last, and if it does, we either tire of it or live in fear of its loss. And certainly, even the most fortunate of lives have this in end - old age, decay and death. Thus it is of little surprise that the Buddha proclaims the unenlightened life to be one of suffering, and we are bound to nod in assent to his First Noble Truth that:

Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering

Sickness is suffering, death is suffering

Association with the unpleasant is suffering

Dissociation from the pleasant is suffering

Not to get what one wants is suffering

In short attachment to the five aggregates is suffering.

- Dhamma-cakkappavattana Sutra

But wait, before we take decision to jump to our conclusion, all is not lost in futility and hopelessness. There is an end to suffering, the Buddha assures us, and to this end he offers us a path - his Noble Eightfold Path. Correct or right mindfulness (Pali: sammā-sati, Sanskrit: samyak- smrti) is the 7^th factor of this Eightfold Path.

Goenka, a teacher of Buddhist Vipassana meditation writes of the merits of mindfulness meditation: it is

“… how to live peacefully and harmoniously within oneself, and to generate peace and harmony for all others; how to live happily from day to day while progressing towards the highest happiness of a totally pure mind, a mind filled with disinterested love, with compassion, with joy at the success of others, with equanimity.”[1]

Now, since happiness - preferably the everlasting kind - is that which we all desire, and truly our lives’ toil is for this, it seems reasonable to give this promise of mindfulness a go.

Some terminology: Mindfulness is the usual english translation of the Pali term sati and in its Sanskrit counterpart smrti. The word smrti in sanskrit literally means ‘to remember’ or ‘awareness’. It is translated as nian in Chinese, and as trenpa in Tibetan. Some contend that the translation of sati and smrti as mindfulness is confusing and that a number of Buddhist scholars are trying to establish "retention" as the preferred alternative.

[1] S. N, Goenka, (1987), The Discourse Summaries, Vipassana Research Institute, Apollo Printing Press, Maharashtra, India., 1.

Mindfulness: The Western Psychology Tradition

The Use of Mindfulness to Improve Mental Health

In recent years, Mindfulness and Psychotherapy has been gaining a mounting interest among psychologists and clients with mindfulness becoming the focus of considerable attention for clinical practice and research. Empirical studies have examined the construct of mindfulness for almost 40 years, and a conceptual definition of mindfulness has been continuously revised and clarified over this period. What we currently term mindfulness in the area of contemplative science, and the corresponding techniques of its cultivation, stem from Eastern introspective psychological practices, specifically Buddhist psychology, which made reference to the concept over 2,500 years ago.

As the concept of mindfulness has been gradually introduced into the realm of Western science, many thought mindfulness and its associated meditation practices, a method used to develop mindfulness, was a capacity attainable only by certain people. However, several decades of research methodology and scientific discovery have defrayed these myths.

Viewed from a psychological perspective, mindfulness can be seen as a process of self-regulated attention, focusing on present-moment perceptions with an open and non-judgmental awareness (Bishop et al., 2004). Mindfulness is widely considered to be an inherent quality of human consciousness. That is a capacity of attention and awareness oriented to the present moment that varies in degree within and between individuals, and can be assessed empirically and independent of religious, spiritual, or cultural beliefs.

As the field of psychology continues to expand and evolve, one fruitful avenue of exploration has been the integration of mindfulness into psychological theory and practice. Mindfulness meditation is a useful technique for enhancing mindfulness and forms the basis for the majority of mindfulness-based interventions (Kabat-Zinn, 2005). Two decades of empirical research have generated considerable evidence supporting the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions across a wide range of clinical and nonclinical populations, and these interventions have been incorporated into a variety of health care, community and academic settings. For example, studies have shown that mindfulness practice has the potential to mitigate academic, social, and existential stressors experienced by university students (Lynch et al., 2011), and reduce anxiety, negative affect and increase positive affect and hope in university students (Sears & Kraus, 2009). Mindfulness also significantly predicts high levels of self-esteem and low levels of social anxiety in university students (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011).

Educators are turning to mind-body practices such as mindfulness meditation not only to help them manage their own stress (Miller & Nozawa, 2002), but also to promote well-being, stress reduction and better coping in their students (Wall, 2005).

The practice of mindfulness teaches us a different way to relate to our thoughts, feelings, and emotions as they arise. It is about learning to approach and acknowledge whatever is happening in the present moment, setting aside our lenses of judgment and just being with whatever is there, rather than avoiding it or needing to fix it. It’s the mind’s attempt to avoid and fix things in this moment that fuels the feelings of stress and disturbing emotions.

Now, this is easier said than done and it takes practice……...

Bishop, S.R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N.D., Carmody, J., Segal, Z. et al. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed

operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11, 230-41.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain and illness. New

York: Delta.

Lynch, S., Gander, M., Kohis, N., Kudielka, B. & Walach, H. (2011). Mindfulness-based coping with university life: A non-

randomised wait-list-controlled pilot evaluation Stress and Health, March 20-45.

Miller, J. & Nozawa, A. (2002). Meditating teachers: A qualitative study. Professional Development in Education, 28, 179-192.

Rasmussen, M. & Pidgeon, A.M . (2011). The direct and indirect benefits of dispositional mindfulness on self-esteem and social

anxiety. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 24 (2), 227-233.

Sears, S & Kraus, S. (2009) I think therefore I om: Cognitive distortions and coping style as mediators for the effects of

mindfulness meditation on anxiety, positive and negative affect, and hope. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(6), 561-573.

Wall, R. B. (2005). Tai chi and mindfulness-based stress reduction in a Boston public middle school. Journal of Pediatric Health Care 19, (4): 230-7.