Mindfulness Meditation

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Hey everyone. I keep hearing about the benefits of “mindfulness meditation”. It seems like it is some sort of Buddhist method of meditation. Anyway, I was just wondering, would it be okay to practice this form of meditation?
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. I keep hearing about the benefits of “mindfulness meditation”. It seems like it is some sort of Buddhist method of meditation. Anyway, I was just wondering, would it be okay to practice this form of meditation?
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Mindfulness was originally a Buddhist technique. In many cases, there is not a lot that is specifically Buddhist about the practice. One of the more common variants is “Mindfulness of Breathing”, and breathing is hardly exclusive to Buddhists. It is a more sophisticated version of, “take a deep breath,” or “count to ten before doing something you might regret.”

Do get proper training before starting, and no, five minutes reading a page off the internet is not proper training.

For a related Christian meditation, see Saying the Jesus Prayer. If you do decide to follow that, then please heed Bishop Ware’s advice:

“But those who have no personal contact with starets [a teacher] may still practice the Prayer without any fear, so long as they do so only for limited periods - initially, for no more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time - and so long as they make no attempt to interfere with the body’s natural rhythms.”

rossum
 
True mindfulness is being aware of the presence of the Lord, how much He loves you, and your desire to love Him and be with Him forever.

Other techniques fall short of prayer as it should be, and there are wonderful teachers on prayer in our saints and doctors of the Church.
 
“Mindfulness meditation” has become popular among cognitive-behavioral therapists. They always add the disclaimer that you don’t have to become a Buddhist to practice “mindfulness meditation,” that you’re not adopting the whole religion, just one of its techniques.

Personally I disagree with this assessment of the practice. I don’t think “mindfulness meditation” is just a technique. It’s part of a worldview, part of a complete philosophy of life. The Buddhist view of the Self is different from the Christian view of the Self. I don’t think its techniques can be fully divorced from the religion any more than praying the rosary can be divorced from Catholicism. (You don’t have to be Catholic to pray the rosary, but the practice will point you in the direction of Catholicism.)

I have frequently heard people say that Buddhism isn’t a religion, but this simply isn’t true. Buddhism doesn’t have the concept of God (so it’s technically a-theistic), but it is a religion. It includes belief in a soul that survives the death of the body as well as other supernatural beliefs.

Fortunately I took an academic interest in Buddhism long before the “mindfulness” trend in psychology, so I read the Surangama Sutra. (I have yet to meet the psychologist who has read this foundational scripture of Ch’an Buddhism.) I understand the religious context of “mindfulness meditation” and I don’t accept that context. Therefore, I don’t accept “mindfulness meditation.” Had I not studied Buddhism, I might have blindly accepted the psychologists’ assessment of the practice.
 
Holly3278 said:
Hey everyone. I keep hearing about the benefits of “mindfulness meditation”. It seems like it is some sort of Buddhist method of meditation. Anyway, I was just wondering, would it be okay to practice this form of meditation?
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Buddhists do not have a monopoly on midfulness. Becoming aware of what you feel without judgement on it is nothing more than a human skill to be developed. Studies are finding it to be beneficial to physical and emotional health. It can also lead to Christian prayer just as anything we do can lead to prayer.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. I really appreciate it. I would like to see a continued discussion of this. I am honestly a little wary of practicing mindfulness meditation due its Buddhist roots. I don’t want to get involved in some sort of New Age practice or something.
 
Dr. Bruce Barrett and 14 co-authors from the University of Wisconsin reported in the Annals of Family Medicine in July, 2012

Mean global severity scores were 144 for meditation, 248 for exercise and 358 for the control group.

There were only 16 acute respiratory infections (ARI) related days off work in the meditation group but 32 in the exercise group and 67 days of work missed by the control group.

These are statistically and clinically significant differences. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

medpagetoday.com/Columns/At-Large/34808
 
:confused:

This type of meditation was suggested to me to treat my panic disorder (derealization). I tried it and it calmed me down significantly. (Although not while experiencing derealization. I was just stressed out in general.) However I am very wary of the New-Age movement with which this appears to somehow be associated. I don’t know what to do. In the past I have tried other techniques which are New-Age related (physical therapy, not related to treating any stress or panic-disorder), also with noticeable results. I don’t want to steer anyone in one direction or the other, I just wanted to share my comment.
 
Job42 said:
:confused:

This type of meditation was suggested to me to treat my panic disorder (derealization). I tried it and it calmed me down significantly. (Although not while experiencing derealization. I was just stressed out in general.) However I am very wary of the New-Age movement with which this appears to somehow be associated. I don’t know what to do. In the past I have tried other techniques which are New-Age related (physical therapy, not related to treating any stress or panic-disorder), also with noticeable results. I don’t want to steer anyone in one direction or the other, I just wanted to share my comment.
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One can always adapt the very Classic Christian Lectio Divina putting just a little more awareness on what one is feeling.

Process:

  1. *]Reading (lectio) – hearing God’s Word in the Bible as I/we read it aloud
    What does the biblical text say?

    *]Meditation (meditatio) – reflecting on the meaning of the text that I/we have read
    What is God saying to me/us through this text?
    What am I feeling about it right now?
    What other thaoughts are distracting me at this time?
    Can I just let those thughts go and retrun to the text?

    *]Prayer (oratio) – speaking with God in praise, thanksgiving, contrition, and petition
    What do I/we say to God in response to this text?

    *]Contemplation (contemplatio) – listening to God more quietly in the silence of our hearts
    How does this text make me/us feel in my/our relationship with God?

    *]Action (actio) – letting the encounter concretely affect our daily life and work in the world
    How will I/we change what I/we do today in response to hearing this text?
 
I am notivicng that most of the people I know who practice meditation, be it Vipassana or whatever, do not embrace the Buddhism or Hinduism. They seem to be most interested in the mental hygene, the inner peace, and calm.

This is what we as Catholic Christians need to offer from the heart of our own tradition.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
I am notivicng that most of the people I know who practice meditation, be it Vipassana or whatever, do not embrace the Buddhism or Hinduism. They seem to be most interested in the mental hygene, the inner peace, and calm.

This is what we as Catholic Christians need to offer from the heart of our own tradition.
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The last sentence hit the nail on the head… Why would you need to practice a form of meditation that is not even a part of the rich history of mysticism and contemplative prayer that the Catholic Church has to offer?

I personally have always had a great interest in studying Buddhism but that’s as far as it goes. The interest is more of a fascination with the persona of the Buddha than any real fascination with its meditation techniques.

There is a book I read called “What God Does to Your Brain” where studies where conducted on the effects of prayer…specifically the rosary on ones brain. They studied the life of religious and found that certain parts of the brain grew with reciting the rosary and other prayers. Other parts of the book left much to be desired but it is still interesting nonetheless.

You can study other faiths but once you start putting into practice certain components of faiths outside of your spiritual framework you are asking for trouble. The trouble is leaving behind a Christian framework for more of an Eastern framework and as much as others who toot the horn of giving the green light to eastern meditative practices for Christians, it is still an eastern meditative practice that is centered not on a relationship with God or self but with nothing in particular since there is no “self” to begin with.

Just my unworthy two cents.

God bless
 
TempleofTheSoul said:
…meditative practice that is centered not on a relationship with God or self but with nothing in particular since there is no “self” to begin with.
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Hah! How true.

I have returned to Bonaventure’s Itinerarium

franciscan-archive.org/bonaventura/opera/bon05295.html

It is pretty scholastic stuff and far removed from our own lingo… but what he is saying is that all things lead to God, from our external surroundings to our inner most self.

And the bottome line:

VII.4. Moreover in this transitus, if one be perfect, it is opportune that all intellectual activities be left behind, and the whole apex of affection be transferred and transformed into God. However this is mystical and most secret, because no one knows it, except him who accepts it, nor does he accept it unless he be one who desires it, nor does he desire it unless he be one whom the fire of the Holy Spirit, which Christ sent upon earth, inflames to the marrow of his bones. And for that reason the Apostle says, that this mystical wisdom has been revealed through the Holy Spirit.

Moreover if you seek, in what manner these things occur, interrogate grace, not doctrine, desire, not understanding; the groan of praying, not the study of reading; the spouse, not the teacher; God, not man, darkness, not brightness; not light, but the Fire totally inflaming, transferring one into God both by its excessive unctions and by its most ardent affections.

I think we let ourselves become too attached to our intellectual activities.
We seldom have the patience to sit there and wait for the Contemplation (contemplatio) – listening to God more quietly in the silence of our hearts. Listening, not speaking, exercising our pure awareness of God’s presence. And yet we all hunger for it.
 
Dorothy said:
True mindfulness is being aware of the presence of the Lord, how much He loves you, and your desire to love Him and be with Him forever.

Other techniques fall short of prayer as it should be, and there are wonderful teachers on prayer in our saints and doctors of the Church.
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I agree. I’m an addictions counselor, right now I’m at a week long conference, I took a class on mindfulness. It’s just like Dorothy say’s. It’s about being in the now, either with God or your surroundings at present. You don’t even have to have your eyes closed. It’s about awareness of what your doing.

This came easy for me because I’ve been doing this while praying the rosary. At least that’s how I’ve been taught to say the rosary. I’m to meditate on the mysteries of.

God bless

jesus g
 
A friend on another forum described it this way:

It is an activity of focus, every sense and every bit of the mind is to be gathered up and presented to God, seeking to bring every bit of our awareness into alignment and focus every bit of ourselves on God. This is a very active thing, not passive at all, and in it, God may step in and bring about that focus for us so that we successfully focus all perfectly, or He may let us grow by our struggles to make that focus perfect. To an observer, they might be no activity at all, hence some of the cause for the accusation of quietism, but in reality there is a great deal of activity even though there is no desire for earthly thing, nor desire for an experience of God that we can imagine, but an openness without expectation, as we gather up all our faculties and offer them up, offering all our attention, and relaxing in this effort without any particular expectation of response.

I thought it was pretty good.
 
SugarMagnolia said:
Personally I disagree with this assessment of the practice. I don’t think “mindfulness meditation” is just a technique. It’s part of a worldview, part of a complete philosophy of life. The Buddhist view of the Self is different from the Christian view of the Self. I don’t think its techniques can be fully divorced from the religion any more than praying the rosary can be divorced from Catholicism. (You don’t have to be Catholic to pray the rosary, but the practice will point you in the direction of Catholicism.)
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I think it would be more proper to state that you can’t separate it from their worldview, because everything is part of their worldview. That goes from their religion, to their medicine, to their food, etc. Westerners tend to have a quantized view of their world, where nothing is related to anything else. If you don’t think that mindfulness meditation is an inseparable element, then you shouldn’t ever eat Chinese food either, because the way it is prepared (balancing of flavors, meats and vegetables, etc.) is also an element of that worldview.

These techniques can be incorporated into western culture. In my own case, I’ve incorporated some visualization techniques into my workout. As a simple example, I visualize wind passing through my body rather than blowing on my skin. The result? I can go out in 40-degree weather without a shirt on and not be freezing or shaking. However, I’m not chanting sutras or anything else while I’m doing it. It’s just like any other daily activity where I might not actively be thinking about God at a particular moment, like getting dressed or eating.

As always, the technique, thing, etc. will have the meaning you attach to it. If you believe it cannot be separated from Buddhism, then it has the potential of leading you toward Buddhism. If not, then its simply another technique that has the potential of improving the body God gave you.
 
+JMJ+
Christine85 said:
Check out this article on Christian mindfulness written by a Carmelite Friar

carmelnet.org/larkin/larkin017.pdf
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It saddens me that theologians such as Bro. Larkin have to resort to terminologies that come from other religions to present Christian ideas, when in fact we Catholics have a more than sufficient vocabulary for this.

The idea of “Christian Mindfulness” has actually a traditional Catholic name, and is in fact one of the Seven Heavenly Virtues that combat the Seven Deadly Vices or Sins. It is called the virtue of diligence, which combats the.deadly sin of sloth.
 
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