the downside of 'mindfulness'
genkaku
Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
With so much money to be made in the "mindfulness" realm, you can sort of see why employers and individuals alike have granted it a growing cachet. In one way, it's an embellished version of the quick-and-easy "take a chill pill." Who wouldn't like to be more at peace, whether at home or on the job?
But together with the upside potential, there is a definite downside aspect and, to my mind, neglecting the latter is dangerous. Yes, I'm aware of the hordes of people who would like to reduce spiritual life to an explicable, psychological direction. That's just one of the attempts to remain in control and talk pretty. But there really are negative aspects as this Guardian article points out.
I know there will be a hundred yes-but's with which to address the problems raised in the article. Nothing that's any good doesn't have a serious potential for something bad. But the willingness to concede the downside aspects can sometimes be drowned out in the desperate effort to heal many wounds. [I once knew a fellow who tried to commit suicide when he found that he could no longer sit cross-legged in meditation ... he was found on his bed in a pool of blood and was, luckily, saved.]
Spiritual adventures really can be very good tools. But they are not toys that make children feel better or workers more serene. They have the power to clarify and the power to immerse in darkness and an unwillingness to concede either potential is no joke.
I'm posting the article not as a means of 'debunking' mindfulness or spiritual practices, but by way of what I consider a good reminder.
FWIW.
Comments
The reason why each of the eight components of the Buddhist eightfold path (including mindfulness) are all preceded with word "right" is because it is only through their appropriate development that attachments and sufferings cause can be diminished.
So what is the essential difference between right mindfulness and the commercial varieties?
@how -- Even if this were so (and I always preferred the word "complete") it still leaves open the question of who, precisely, will apportion the appropriateness. Doesn't this invariably boil down to the individual practitioner?
As I tried to suggest in the OP, I am not in any sense gunning for Buddhism by raising the issue. Buddhism is like a hammer, from where I sit: Great for hanging pictures and equally adept at murdering a mother-in-law.
@SpinyNorman
So what is the essential difference between right mindfulness and the commercial varieties?
For me...
If the data input from any phenomena received, is deliberately clung to, pushed away or ignored...then an attachment and sufferings cause is in evidence.
If the data input from any phenomena received is allowed to pass on by without being habitually redirected, then no attachment or sufferings cause is in evidence.
How do you determine what you are attached to?
@genkaku
It only leaves "who, precisely, will apportion the appropriateness", if you assume that someone other than yourself should do that.
So I guess you could ask why you are assuming that.
I did not see you gunning or criticizing Buddhism.
Packaging. Though of course the religious context and industrious Buddhists have their packaging and motivations too ... I know I do.
When I last looked for information on the potential dangers of practice, it was not easy to come by. So it is good to hear that the situation is being investigated.
Some breakfast cereal was once found to be less nutritious than its packaging. Inferior to tap based h2o, 'superior' water is served at above cost price by marketing. As always can we be solely responsible for our life path. Do we as in my case, need all the help we can get.
Ignorance always is a high price to pay for bliss.
Here are some slogans that might be pertinent:
and so on ...
For me...
So you mean the difference is one of purpose?
Put simply, to me, it's like the difference between making a tagliatelle al forno by first taking 00 flour and eggs and making your own pasta, rolling it out and cutting it to shape; making a base tomato sauce with home-cultivated tomatoes, good-quality olive oil (bought straight from a producer) basil and garlic, and mincing your own beef, bought from an organic farm butcher, (together with their authentic buffalo mozarella) and making tagliatelle al forno by taking some barilla dried pasta, a dolmio sauce, packet galbani mozarella (only 2% fat!) and pre-minced beef in a plastic pack.
^^^ I'll have what she's having
Saying mindfulness is dangerous is like saying water is dangerous. Water is necessary for survival and also very healthy to drink. However, if you jump in the deep end of the pool, and you don't know how to swim, that's going to be a problem! But, it's not really the water that causes that problem. It's the not knowing how to swim part that causes that problem. Proper mindfulness training should teach you how to swim, not just how to jump in the pool.
Spiritual marketing at either the retail or wholesale level is still marketing.
I think the main downside to mindfulness is not managing to do it.
Mindfulness is just a tool. How one uses it depends on its purpose. Is it being used to help end suffering or to increase productivity through stress reduction?
Also the tool can be used wrongly.
I feel it is important to 'wash our dirty mindfullness/laundry in public' in other words not sweep under the Buddha, predator roshi, ignorant zeniths, messianic mahayanists, mixed up mindfullees, meditation junkies and so on ...
That is the ideal. The natural human tendency is to close the doors one dislikes the contents of and open the guests to the favoured shrine room.
... and now back to the mind sweepers ...
Beware the water incidentally ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
With regards to commercializing it, the problem I see is intent. It is quite possible employees are excited to jump in with both feet. Perhaps their intention is pure. But the intention of the employer is often not. They often do not do it to make employees healthier and happier as the main effect. They want more productiveness. So even if someone enters with good intention, if their teacher does not have good intentions that causes an extreme imbalance. It is lacking in foundation, which is what makes things like this so often a fad. I just hope those who find an interest learn about it from a better angle than corporate America.
The right Mindfulness of the 8 FP often gets a bit vague when it's accidentally imbued with aspects of concentration and vise versa.
Today, I see right mindfulness as mind-full-ness but only to discern it from those states of mind that are compartmentalized off from each other.
Right mindfulness is just a bank that is simply willing to be filled with all the flowing currency of existence's data without reservation.
Right concentration is the deliberate exploration of whatever of that bank vaults data leads toward harmlessness and suffering's cessation.
Otherwise we'd only need a 7 FP.
One person's meat is another person's poison! Or One person's trash is another person's treasure!
Mindfulness is useless without metta and loving kindness. You can be very mindfull and living in the present moment while you are robbing one bank together with your mindfullness teacher.
SN 45.1
https://suttacentral.net/en/sn45.1
That article is telling about the firms which send there employee to meditation session and point everytime at those fast track meditation course which they offer to neglate actual problems employees are having.
Even at proper meditation institute, I have seen people ran away in middle of meditation classes because they can't handle memories that arises during meditation. Some complain about headache which is like hot lava. Some cries alot. But those who overcome those hardships starts the normal rewarding experiences.
But at corporate there is very tough competition to work. There is very less family life but poeople get addicted to heavy salary. There is exploitation as well which suppose to do meditation even hard becuase one memorizes a lot during meditation. Therefore one need to practice pancha shila as well with meditation which might not be happening at corporates.
-Perhaps the commercial variety is processed?