Mindfulness Practice Gains Popularity in the Royal University of Bhutan
01 DECEMBER 2011: Led by Dasho (Dr) Pema Thinley, Vice Chancellor of the Royal University of Bhutan and Elizabeth Monson, PhD candidate in religious studies at Harvard University (and currently based at the Institute of Language and Culture Studies), staff at the Office of the Vice Chancellor sat for an hour’s session of mindfulness practice focused on understanding the workings of the mind.
A secular tradition, mindfulness practice aims to train the mind for a deeper and more intimate understanding of its inner workings -- to become civilized, as it were. Quoting Chogyam Trungpa 
Rinpoche, Elizabeth Monson said, mindfulness practice was actually “Training the mind into an ally “.
Through continual practice one comes to understand one’s mind intimately and the potential seeds of understanding, love, compassion, joy and hope flower naturally in us. The mind is a field in which every kind of seed is sown -- seed of joy, compassion and hope, seed of sorrow, fear, anger, sadness and difficulties. Every day our thoughts, words and deeds plant seeds in the seeds of our consciousness and what these seeds generate become the substance of our life. The Practice of Mindfulness helps a person to identify all the seeds in her or his own consciousness. With that knowledge a mindfulness practitioner can choose to water only the ones that are most beneficial.
Understanding our mind through Mindfulness Practice fits in well with the values that underpin Gross National Happiness and it enables a person to cultivate a deep understanding of her or his own mind and how such an understanding is so essential to realizing peace in a GNH society.
The value of mindfulness practice is increasingly being recognized by the staff and students of colleges in the Royal University of Bhutan. For the long term, RUB plans to make mindfulness an inalienable part of curricula and teaching pedagogies across the university.
