Wednesday 7 January 2015

The false promise of Mindfulness

A lot of what comes out of the rapidly growing "mindfulness industry" concerns using meditation as a palliative to soothe the stresses of existence in a contemporary capitalist environment.

 This article provides an insightful critique of this approach. Here is a snippet:

  "Mindfulness as taught by the Buddha is not merely a pacification of stress but one important aspect of a deep engagement with suffering that has a revolutionary nature, distinct from but in some ways complementary to that of the social revolution. Appreciating mindfulness for its revolutionary potential is not simply respectful of the Buddha’s teaching, it may be the only thing mindfulness is actually good for."

No comments:

Post a Comment