Recently, there has been widespread emerging interest in the use of contemplative practices aimed at cultivating mindful awareness and compassion in teachers and students across a broad variety of disciplines (e.g., Roeser & Peck, 2009, Schonert-Reichl et al., in press; Thurman, 2006). But what is mindfulness and how can it be cultivated in secular educational settings in ways that support and extend other core aims of education associated with the "three Rs"?

Both clinical psychology and neuroscience research have revealed important beneficial outcomes of the practice of...