The Dalai Lama began a dialogue with cognitive scientists in 1987, to explore how the insights gained by Buddhist contemplatives could be used to inform research and find new ways to promote human wellbeing. At that time he could not have imagined that businesses and even the US military would one day want to harness some of those insights.

Last Friday in Boston at the latest meeting of the Mind & Life Institute – the organisation that grew from those discussions – about 1,700 delegates from 38 countries were in attendance.

One of the issues that were discussed is whether there are any guiding principles that should be considered when applying mindfulness to settings such as business and the military. The US marines are implementing a program based on Mindfulness designed to counteract the effects of stress.

It is a measure of the success of secular mindfulness that it is now seen not only as a tool for promoting mental health and wellbeing, but also for enhancing concentration and performance under pressure in sport, commerce and the armed forces. But this is proving controversial, with some claiming that teaching mindfulness skills in the absence of any moral framework – for example to make money or win wars – is a perversion of the Buddhist values of compassion and selflessness.