The Psychological Reconstruction of Mindfulness: From Buddhist Origins to Modern Operationalization

Abstract This article presents a conceptual analysis of mindfulness as a cultural–psychological boundary object, examining how contemporary psychological deployments diverge from early Buddhist frameworks. Treating Buddhist psychology as a coherent theoretical framework, the analysis traces how dominant psychological definitions increasingly classify mindfulness through outcome-based criteria. At the same time, ethical orientation, investigative function, and liberation-oriented purpose recede into the background. Using a conceptual and genealogical approach, the paper synthesizes literature from early Buddhist sources, historical analyses of Buddhist modernism, psychological measurement research, and studies of XR-based mindfulness interventions. Rather than evaluating intervention efficacy, it examines how assumptions about attention, embodiment, and purpose shape the formation and validation of constructs. The analysis supports a pluri-epistemic approach to psychological science that foregrounds epistemic lineage and construct transparency, clarifying the trade-offs involved in abstraction, measurement, and scalability.