ABSTRACT
The secular and scientific reframing of mindfulness meditation, among other things, functions to legitimise and support the growth of this practice in western mainstream culture. This chapter draws from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews and organisational documents to outline the common discursive strategies operationalised by mindfulness teachers to lend legitimacy to the practice. It also explores how these discourses are adopted by trainee teachers and mindfulness meditators. These include: 1) science, scientism and neuroscientism; 2) academisation; 3) the rhetoric of universality; 4) the Buddhist discourse of suffering; and 5) mental health and resilience.
