How We Ruined Mindfulness. ( about meaningless mindfulness)

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“Ricard’s point is that the secular mindfulness movement typically offers mindfulness without morals. It’s a “me me me” mindfulness that might be good for you, but doesn’t necessarily make you good. In contrast, he believes the ancient Buddhist tradition offers a much-needed ethical framework that integrates concepts like compassion, empathy and caring. The secular courses could easily include this wider value-based perspective, but most fail to do so — they’re too busy packaging mindfulness for our age of hyper-individualism.”

Yes, I can see that.
But then, some people have got to start somewhere.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
“Ricard’s point is that the secular mindfulness movement typically offers mindfulness without morals. It’s a “me me me” mindfulness that might be good for you, but doesn’t necessarily make you good. In contrast, he believes the ancient Buddhist tradition offers a much-needed ethical framework that integrates concepts like compassion, empathy and caring. The secular courses could easily include this wider value-based perspective, but most fail to do so — they’re too busy packaging mindfulness for our age of hyper-individualism.”

Yes, I can see that.
But then, some people have got to start somewhere.
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I think its a fairly natural progression from being more aware of something that we are doing to being more aware of why we are doing it, to pondering whether it is a good/helpful/moral thing to be doing in the first place.
 
LilyM said:
I think its a fairly natural progression from being more aware of something that we are doing to being more aware of why we are doing it, to pondering whether it is a good/helpful/moral thing to be doing in the first place.
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I think you are right.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
“Ricard’s point is that the secular mindfulness movement typically offers mindfulness without morals. It’s a “me me me” mindfulness that might be good for you, but doesn’t necessarily make you good. In contrast, he believes the ancient Buddhist tradition offers a much-needed ethical framework that integrates concepts like compassion, empathy and caring. The secular courses could easily include this wider value-based perspective, but most fail to do so — they’re too busy packaging mindfulness for our age of hyper-individualism.”

Yes, I can see that.
But then, some people have got to start somewhere.
Click to expand...
Had a thought while reading all that…

I have on occasion discussed this matter with my Buddhist friends, especially my Asian ones who seem…a little worried about the West’s take on Mindfulness.

What specifically creates that worry is that - this has happened before in the history of their religious tradition.
there was ‘no Bodhisattva practice superior to the compassionate taking of life’.
-Nakahara Nantenbo, Rinzai Zen Master
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Or to quote Ricard from the article…
Well, you could have a very mindful sniper and a mindful psychopath. It’s true! A sniper needs to be so focused, never distracted, very calm, always bringing back his attention to the present moment. And non-judgmental — just kill people and no judgment. That could happen!”
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Jnana/Ch’an/Seon practices had always been controversial in the history of Buddhist thought…mostly because those of other schools felt that the unstructured character of the discipline might lead a person into error. Stripping away the words of the Buddha, who often vocalized compassion and ethics hand-in-hand with his meditative and psychological practices, left the practitioner a little bit…exposed…

This seems to be the assessment of what happened to Jnana/Ch’an/Seon when it hit the shores of Japan and became Zen.

In that specific case, Zen became a sort of spiritual ideology for a warrior elite. This isn’t anything particularly new in the history of religion - all institutions in one way or another have to “play ball” with nationalism and state governments.

-BUT-, as Brian Victoria outlines in his work Zen at War, about the collaboration of the Rinzai and Soto Zen masters with the Imperial Japanese government, there might have been a structural issue within Zen at that period of time that left it quite exposed to the forces of jingoistic nationalism.

Other Schools of Buddhism, such as the Pure Land Sect, had some of their more socially-conscious leaders dragged off to prison in protest against the War in Korea, China, etc. Although they were patriotic and nationalistic like the average Japanese citizen, reflecting upon the moral teachings of the Buddha they could see the divergence between what was preached and how the Japanese Imperial government acted.

Zen on the other hand…seem to essentially…how do you Americans put it? “Double-Down”

The De-Emphasis on Compassion (historically an important virtue in Buddhism) during the medieval and pre-modern era when you have that warrior elite riding around on horseback, might have made it easier for Zen version of Buddhism to swept up by the Imperial Government propaganda machine.

There is a kind of feeling that Buddhism encounter with the West, while bearing dividends for their faith communities, has also produced…“strange fruit”.

One member of the Tibetan buddhist community expressed in terms to me as a form of “Spiritual Materialism” - with a kind of “Baby Boomer” Peter Pan-esque emphasis on the Self (which ultimately defeats whole practice of Buddhism).

In other words, while not as violent as the misuse seen in the Japanese case, Mindfulness can be bent to serve the purposes of this… “Diet coke” like spirituality which places the individual at the center of everything…
 
We actually do not need to borrow (or ruin) mindfulness or borrow it from anywhere else. It is too bad that we do not value it on our own tradition. And are sometimes even suspect of it.

Thanks for the historical background on Zen and Japanese elite warriors.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
We actually do not need to borrow (or ruin) mindfulness or borrow it from anywhere else. It is too bad that we do not value it on our own tradition. And are sometimes even suspect of it.
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You know, as a guy coming from a completely different culture sphere… I never really understood the whole “let’s pop over to Asia and grab whatever is laying around and construct some sort of patchwork spirituality out of it” mentality i tend to encounter with Western converts to “Fill-in-X.”

Christianity, at least in Orthodox and Catholic forms, has a whole spiritual tradition that as you stated Michael, seems to be ignored… even by its own adherents!

I can -literally- point out where for instance the Teachings of the Desert Fathers, or John Climachus, or the Palamite Hesychasts might have the same appeal to someone interested in Daoism or Hinduism…and I may as well be talking about something that occurred on Mars 10,000 years ago. 😛
 
ChineseCatholic said:
You know, as a guy coming from a completely different culture sphere… I never really understood the whole “let’s pop over to Asia and grab whatever is laying around and construct some sort of patchwork spirituality out of it” mentality i tend to encounter with Western converts to “Fill-in-X.”

Christianity, at least in Orthodox and Catholic forms, has a whole spiritual tradition that as you stated Michael, seems to be ignored… even by its own adherents!

I can -literally- point out where for instance the Teachings of the Desert Fathers, or John Climachus, or the Palamite Hesychasts might have the same appeal to someone interested in Daoism or Hinduism…and I may as well be talking about something that occurred on Mars 10,000 years ago. 😛
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Yep.and even that can get the label “New Age” thrown at it.
 
This is the same approach we see in C. S. Lewis’ famous quote on education: Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

The Fathers teach that mindfulness, or nepsis, is a means towards helping one gain control over their imagination and passions, uprooting and weakening our inclination towards sin, and push one’s focus towards God in prayer, and your neighbors’ happiness.

That is, mindfulness is a means towards this end, and any other focus is probably a corrupt end. One can also use mindfulness to keep his mind from seeing thoughts, feelings, truths, and vices that he doesn’t want to see. In other words, mindfulness can more solidify someone’s ignoring of God.

Christi pax.
 
For a while that word was so overused at work. Be Mindful! It really meant pay attention to the task you are doing. I so liked this article which placed being engaged in the world over being task-oriented.
 
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