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> I often hear the argument that the current applications of mindfulness in corporate or otherwise commercial settings are a perversion of the original teaching
by gerbilly 7y ago
> I often hear the argument that the current applications of mindfulness in corporate or otherwise commercial settings are a perversion of the original teachings.
Buddhism teaches that you should tackle the coarser causes of suffering first. If there is a thorn in your foot, no one is suggesting you should go do a good sit to deal with the pain. First you remove the thorn, then you sit.
In my opinion mindfulness at work (or anywhere) can be beneficial, but if we only use it to paper over the structural problems that make work life stressful for so many, we are losing the opportunity to eliminate the coarser causes of suffering.
Think of it as an 80/20 rule. Probably eighty percent of the suffering at work comes from twenty percent of the causes. We should be tackling those, and that requires political engagement. It may even require oppositional methods in some really bad cases.
- anbende 7y agoI agree that in a larger sense, there are often greater problems at work than the internal regulation of attention and stress. From working with clients however, you might be surprised just how often people come in not realizing that they have what is essentially a giant thorn sticking out of their foot! Usually this looks more like chronic lack of sleep, a bad relationship with their spouse or even a toxic work environment, but shut inside their ball of stress and the narrow anxious attention that accompanies it, they miss the forest of causes for the more immediate trees of anxiety, tension and panic. You might be surprised how often a person says “oh my god I’m tired and stressed because I haven’t gotten a good nights sleep in 10 years!” after a little awareness training.
- gerbilly 7y agoWhat we're all really looking for in most workplaces is love and attention [edit: acceptance], but we express that by working harder and harder in order to 'earn' it. In my opinion this is the most beneficial buddhist 'practise' for western society: "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere." If that were taken to heart, believed and practised, you would get rid of 80% of most people's suffering.
- gmfawcett 7y agoI am definitely not an expert on Buddhism, but "nobody in the universe deserves your love more than yourself" doesn't sound like Buddhism to me. Is that an actual classical teaching?
- gerbilly 7y agoIt is a direct quote from the buddha. The point of it that some people don't start practise because they don't believe they deserve to be happy.
- praptak 7y agoI believe it is at best misquoted from the actual canon: https://tricycle.org/magazine/you-deserve-your-love-and-affection/ https://tricycle.org/magazine/you-deserve-your-love-and-affe... The quote from the canon: Searching in all directions With your awareness, you find no one dearer than yourself. In the same way, others are thickly dear to themselves. So you shouldn’t hurt others if you love yourself.
- gerbilly 7y agoNow that is interesting. I heard that quote from a respected Zen master! This is why I love HN. Thanks for the correction.
- vidarh 7y agoIt appears it's not: https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/you-yourself-as-much-as-anybody-in-the-entire-universe-deserve-your-love-and-affection/ https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/you-yourself-as-much-as-anybody...
- closeparen 7y agoHappiness undermines revolutionaries; we should expect it to freak them out. So what if mindfulness delays the overthrow of capitalism. So do exercise, sleep, diet, friends, etc. People telling you not to take care of yourself because your misery is useful to them are not necessarily the ones to follow. Mindfulness doesn’t make your problems go away or destroy your will to be oppositional when necessary. It simply brings clarity and perspective. This is a genuine threat, however, to political movements looking to project their own explanations onto your general sense of unease.