I am very delighted about the uprising of mindfulness into western science and culture. It has been too long thought of as a Buddhist, Eastern or even worse; New age thing. Of course, it has it’s offspring in Buddhism, but like Jon Kabat-Zinn points out; mindfulness is very much like gravity, it’s a law of nature. Therefore it does not belong to Buddhism necessarily, but can be practiced by anyone, from all kinds of culture or religion. Because whatever our view upon life is, we all suffer from ego; Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist. The secular practice of meditation is neutral of any religious content and is purely a practice so that we can get to know our minds and ourselves, so that aggression is being abdicated as the main drive in our lives. Because we all have ego’s and we if we take an honest look at the problems in this world, ego can be held responsible for most of it. So we’ll need clearly defined techniques to tame our aggression instead of suppressing it or indulging in it; we have to get to know our aggression, to be mindful of it. Not only does this clear up the aggression in our interaction with others, it also clears up the aggression in everything we do. And this will show in our arts, in the way we dress, in the way we design our cities and the way we treat each other. The celebration of humanity.
-
Posted in