Mindfulness Association

What the Mindfulness Association is

The Mindfulness Association is a mindfulness and compassion training organization whose contact address is in Edinburgh, and it teaches mostly online with some in-person weekends and retreats. It is a learner product first: people come to it to learn to meditate and keep a practice going, and a second strand trains and supports people who go on to teach mindfulness themselves.

The site describes its courses as "second generation mindfulness", which it explains as "a more comprehensive and authentic approach to mindfulness" grounded more firmly in Buddhist roots and applied beyond stress reduction. Compassion sits at the center of the teaching, and the site calls mindfulness "a way of life and not a brief intervention for relieving symptoms." The directors write that the organization was founded in May 2010, and they name Rob Nairn as its founder and Choden, Heather and Norton as co-founders and directors.

The four-level pathway

The core of the offer is a four-level pathway: Level 1 Mindfulness, Level 2 Compassion, Level 3 Insight and Level 4 Wisdom. A beginner starts at Level 1, which the site says "runs online over 4 weekends or over 16 evening sessions." The first module works as a taster, and after it you are invited to book the rest of the course if you want to continue. The course calendar shows Level 1 and Level 2 running online, with dated start and end points, so these are scheduled courses with set sessions rather than self-paced video.

Each level builds on the one before. One reviewer on the homepage sums up the progression as "Continue on to training in compassion, insight and wisdom." The training rests on the method Rob Nairn developed, and the site says his background in law and psychology, together with having "received teachings by distinguished Buddhist meditation teachers", lets him explain mindfulness "from a Western psychological and secular perspective." Recordings of his talks are on the site.

Free daily meditation and free resources

The easiest way in costs nothing. The site runs a free guided meditation on Zoom twice every weekday, from 10:30am to 11am and from 7pm to 8pm GMT, Monday to Friday, and its daily meditation page puts it plainly: "Our free mindfulness meditations are totally free." Each session is led by one of the tutors, the group changes from day to day, and after the evening session there is time to stay and chat. You do not need to sign up or give an email address, but you do need a Zoom account. The tutor mutes everyone for the meditation, and your camera can stay off.

The site is careful about what these sessions are. It says they are "not a treatment for mental health problems or addiction", links to safety guidance, and notes that the daily sits are hosted by experienced teaching volunteers, so a session is occasionally canceled at short notice. Its FAQ adds that the meditations are experiential and draw on "neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and Buddhism."

Around the daily sits there is a fair amount of free material: an archive of over 200 recorded daily meditations, a collection of mini meditations for short breaks, Rob Nairn talks, a monthly mindfulness calendar on the blog, and free introductions to mindfulness, compassion and insight. There are also online email courses that send "10 weekly emails which contain videos and guidance", described as a way to try mindfulness "at your own pace in your own time."

Membership

Membership is how the organization turns occasional visitors into a regular practice community. The homepage lists what members get: "daily guided practice sessions, free monthly webinars, and exclusive discounts on courses and retreats." Members also join two free online weekends a year, in spring and autumn, where tutors lead teaching and meditation. The October weekend program covers topics such as neurodiversity, cultivating patience, digital detox and mindfulness-based spiritual practice.

Every other Thursday at 7pm there is a teaching and meditation session for members only, and each one is recorded and added to the practices and resources on the members' website. The blog describes a monthly neurodivergent practice group for members, and the course calendar lists online neurodivergent peer practice sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On price, the homepage offers this: "For just £10 you will enjoy 6 months free trial with access to all the benefits".

Themed courses, retreats and practice days

Beyond the pathway, the site lists themed courses, most of them online: Ageing and Menopause with Compassion, Digital Detox, Feeding not Fighting, an Equanimity five-week course, Finding the Calm in Caring, Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Mindfulness Based Spiritual Practice, Mindfulness Meets Mystical Poetry, Mindful Yoga and Qigong, The Wonder of the Everyday and a Tonglen weekend. The Compassion in Action weekend is held in person in Edinburgh. There are also single practice days, such as a Mystical Poetry Retreat Day online, and a Mindfulness for Life program of retreats.

The FAQ says courses and retreats are offered "both online and in person", with some in-person retreats held at Samye Ling and Holy Isle. One reviewer calls the chance to learn at Samye Ling "a total privilege and a not to be missed experience."

Teacher training, CPD and supervision

The second strand is for people who want to teach. The site offers a Teacher Training Package built around two courses it has developed, the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC) and the Compassion Based Living Course (CBLC), with training structured as Teaching Level 1, Teaching Level 2 (MBLC) and Teaching Level 3 (CBLC). The FAQ calls the MBLC "an example of their second-generation mindfulness training." The site says the Mindfulness Association is a member of the British Association of Mindfulness Based Approaches (BAMBA) and that its teacher training "meets the requirements of the BAMBA good practice guidelines."

Qualified teachers have their own track: a teacher membership, ongoing teacher courses, and a continuing professional development program with online courses including How to Share Your Mindfulness Teaching, Advanced Inquiry Skills and Neurodiversity-Informed Mindfulness. The site also lists supervision, both a directory to find a supervisor and training to become one, and a directory to find an MBLC teacher. The site also lists its own books on the MBLC, the CBLC and From Mindfulness to Insight.

Masters study and research

For academic study, the site has a Masters and Research section listing MSc Studies in Mindfulness, a research forum, research blogs and a page on Waikato University research. The homepage invites visitors to "Study Post Graduate Masters Courses". This sits alongside the practice courses rather than replacing them.

The Everyone Project and course costs

The organization runs the Everyone Project to help people attend courses they could not otherwise afford, and a link at the top of the site asks "Do You Need Support With Attending a Course?" The tutors lead the daily sits as volunteers and ask those who can to donate. The homepage says "Just £5 will pay for one session of the Mindfulness Based Living Course to be delivered to one person", while the daily meditation page gives the figure as £7.50. The homepage also credits an award from People's Postcode Trust.

The course listings on the homepage show dates and formats but no fees.

What students say

The homepage shows Google reviews through Trustindex, rated "EXCELLENT" and "Based on 34 reviews". The comments are consistent about the people and the community. One reviewer writes "The mindfulness training is second to none" and calls the teachers "Authentic, kind". Another, who has attended the daily sits for years, says of the longer courses, "They have helped to totally change the way I view the world and my place in it." A third writes, "All the tutors at the MA are wonderful: warm, caring and insightful." Another praises the "free resources that are easy to access" and "courses and other events that are reasonably priced."

Who it suits

The Mindfulness Association suits an adult who wants to learn meditation properly over months, in scheduled sessions with tutors and fellow students, and who is comfortable with teaching drawn openly from Buddhist practice alongside psychology. A complete beginner can test it for nothing in the weekday Zoom sits, then take the Level 1 taster before committing. People who already practice will find the membership, the themed courses and the retreats a steady structure, and anyone who wants to teach mindfulness gets a full route through MBLC and CBLC training, CPD and supervision.

It suits learners less if they want an on-demand app to use whenever they like, since the daily sits and most courses run to a fixed schedule. It is also not a clinical service: the site says plainly that its sessions are not a treatment for mental health problems.