Our world’s buzzing with the mindfulness meme. If you check how “mindfulness” trends on Google, you’ll find that it’s now at an all time high. Ten years ago, people searched for “mindfulness” related content on the internet 75% less than they do now. This suggests people have a new and booming interest in developing their ability to pay attention. That’s because we want to be happy, healthy, and secure. We want peace and safety for ourselves and for others. But, is mindfulness on its own, without sustained compassion, enough to help us gain and strengthen these things?
The Mindfulness Market Place
If we look at what can be fairly called the mindfulness market place, we could get the idea that being mindful is the “value added” commodity that puts the perfecting touch on nearly each and every other good or service one can buy.
For example, in a quick, non-random scan of the mindfulness market on the internet, I found businesses offering mindful body work and message, mindful pet services, 5 Tips for Mindful Shopping, mindful yoga, and mindful garbage. What’s mindful garbage, you ask?That’s a business that promotes thoughtful recycling. These days, one can sign up for training in Mindfulness-Based Tennis Psychology. Parents can buy Goldie Hawn’s book called Ten Mindful Minutes. It promises to help give “children the social and emotional skills to lead smarter, healthier, and happier lives.” I even found an article about taxidermy and your pet at the Mindful Life Network.
The Hubbub Around Being Mindful
Now, there’s nothing in this marketing that’s untoward. In fact, I find it encouraging. You see, suddenly, mindfulness, just like yoga asana, is no longer a fringy thing standing like a wallflower at the margins of life. Now, to be mindful is to be hip because scientists can measure its consequences. It has cash value for the same reason. And in America at least, that means widespread interest in mindfulness may be more than just a trendy, new shade of paint, not just today’s Sea Foam Green, waiting to be replace by Avocado tomorrow.
On the up side, millions of people are exploring the notion that their own mind might be used for more than problem solving, watching TV, and filing away facts. Moreover, people seem to be considering that having a mind trained in attentiveness might be more handy than having a mind that’s not. People seem to be seeing that putting the mind’s capacity for dealing with facts, solutions, creativity and entertainments aside, good science says that the mindful mind is a calmer mind, a less drama prone mind, one that’s invariably a happier mind, too. And the hubbub around mindfulness seems to come from these significant and hopeful changes in our culture.
We need to also train in compassion if we truly want peace
On it’s face, the explosion in interest in mindfulness seems positive and grand. That is, until one considers that it is by itself only a discipline that, if developed sufficiently, helps a person focus on what’s happening in the here and now with a greater sense of calm and ease.
So, on the up side, a math teacher trained in mindfulness can calmly care for and more effectively teach his class. Yet on the down side, a sniper trained to be mindful will effectively settle himself, calm himself, and accurately focus to kill his brother human being on the battlefield. Following from this observation, we see that mindfulness alone is a neutral tool we can use to enliven any situation. On the other hand, the oppressed can use mindfulness to adjust to their pain and the cruelty of their oppression.
That said, if we want to be happy, healthy, and secure, if we want peace and safety for ourselves and others, mindfulness alone is not enough. That’s because as wonderful as it is, mindfulness is really only a value neutral tool. We need to also train in compassion if we truly want to share the fruits of peace.
Ancient Traditions Aim At Virtue
Consequently, Buddhism and Yoga always teach mindfulness in the context of a broader foundational training in nonviolence, morality, and compassion. The Pali Canon exemplifies this ancient understanding in many ways and many places. Yet one of my favorites is this mythical exchange between a prominent Jain deity, the Yakkha Manibhadda, and the Buddha.
[the Yakkha Manibhadda]
“It is always good for the mindful one,
The mindful one thrives in happiness.
It is better each day for the mindful one,
And he is free from enmity.”
[the Buddha]
“It is always good for the mindful one,
The mindful one thrives in happiness.
It is better each day for the mindful one,
But he is not free from enmity.”
“One whose mind all day and night
Takes delight in harmlessness,
Who has lovingkindness for all beings—-
For him there is enmity with none.”
~~The Samyutta Nikaya—Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
If we want happiness and peace, we need to cultivate mindfulness, yes. And our mindfulness will then aim to help us mindfully attend to, among other things, how our thoughts, words, and actions are affecting others. Our mindfulness will help us maintain the wish the we ourselves and all other beings be happy.
This Message is Relevant Today
Along these lines,
[R]emember that mindfulness practice, taken in isolation, lacks a moral compass… The [mindfulness training] framework supported becoming more effective, mentally, in order to live ever more virtuously. These were ancient traditions, but their message remains relevant today.
Here is the link to the full article: huffingtonpost.com/deborah-schoeberlein/happiness-tips_b_3874946.html
And here is a link to an article on how the military is using mindfulness in training. It is full of relevant and useful insights on this matter. The article is by Ronal Purser. It’s called The Militarization of Mindfulness. It’s at Inquiring Mind. inquiringmind.com/Articles/MilitarizationOfMindfulness.html
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I hope you enjoy the week ahead!