- A different sort of problem, with too many books on mindfulness, is the implication that it’s something sacred and special – to be practised, if not on mountaintops, then at least by retiring to your room with a colouring book or relaxation tape. This implies that it’s necessarily in conflict with a busy existence
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- Contrary to the debunkers, the point certainly isn’t that mindfulness is rubbish. It’s that it’s so non-rubbish – so much a crucial foundation of a fulfilling life – that you shouldn’t relegate it to the status of a minor hobby, something to be done with your downtime. And you already may be doing it.
I feel that when the idea of mindfulness, as buddhists use the word, was secularized, it lost a lot of the important nuances to it even though they weren't religious details. For example, for many buddhists and non-buddhists, mindfulness doesn't become as powerful as it can be until it's used to focus on things like gratitude, compassion, and patience while learning how your mind works and how to accept and benefit from even unwanted emotions. It feels like the author isn't thinking about any of that. So while I don't disagree with him when he says "you already may be doing it," I feel like he's implying that there's nothing more worth exploring about mindfulness and trivializing the diverse benefits.
I haven't read the whole article, but I'll share my thoughts on the matter real quick. Concepts like mindfulness and virtuous behavior, whether they have roots in religion like Buddhism or schools of thought like Stoicism, are at their core very easy to start practicing. All you have to do is make a conscious effort to start. The more you do it, the more the behavior becomes a part of who you are, how you think, how you feel, how you act. There are of course different degrees of behavior, like exercising. You have the people who go to the park on occasion for a walk or to ride their bike, to keep their heart healthy. Then you have the people who go to the gym, day in and day out, working to sculpt their body into something desirable. How far someone goes into practicing these concepts is up to the individual. The thing is, just like exercise, there is no big secret to mindfulness and virtuous behavior. The key is to start and don't let yourself stop. So in that way, I agree with what I think the author is trying to say. The thing is though, that just like there are people out there with special dietary needs or physical issues that keep them from living physically active lives to their fullest, there are people with mental issues that similarly create roadblocks. Mental issues such as depression, anxiety, what have you. They do need a little extra guidance, a little extra help. There are various programs out there, some strikingly close to mindfulness. Programs like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In this sense, I disagree with the author. Mindfulness is something available to us all, but some of us need a little more help grasping it.
I very firmly believe that a large portion of the human population would benefit from sitting quietly for a few hours a week, following the rise and fall of their breath. This alone has benefits for reducing stress and anxiety. One day i would like to do a comparative study of blood cortisol levels between people who pursue a meditative practice and those who don't. I agree that a lot of nuance is lost in the secularized translation, but I don't think it's completely unrecoverable. And I definitely think that there is a tangible value in the practice before you start applying it to changing (idealizing) ones behavior. I sit for few hours a week. Maybe 25% of the time I'll use a guided track from wildmind.org. I find that when I am sitting regularly, I am typically less reactive, less stressed, more capable of healthy decision making. If a person is routinely feeling really anxious or depressed, the simplest meditations can be really subjectively beneficial.
I agree that the lost nuance can be recovered. I'm actually all about the secularization of mindfulness and meditation. It can remain an extremely valuable spiritual practice full of variation and nuance without being tied to anything mystical or supernatural, which is not my thing. I too notice daily benefit from my practice, and a lot of my day-to-day practice is based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, but I still would not really call myself a Buddhist.