Opinion piece: "McMindfulness: Buddhism as sold to you by neoliberals"

[Andy]

Indeed mindfulness-based practices are merging with the neoliberal logic of “self care”. They seem to be consistent with the imperative that we increasingly take responsibility for our own individual fates as they are set adrift from community. This is a logic that has become pervasive across our public and private institutions, where “self regulation” in pursuit of resilience is the new watchword. Adapt – or perish.

And so mindfulness is being sold as a respite from hyper-consumerism, or as support for our struggle to comply with pressures to enhance productivity in the workplace. It is being used, for example, as a form of self-discipline in the service of enhanced productivity in corporate and institutional settings. Equally, the practice is being deployed by institutions to help mitigate consequences at heightened moments of distress such as when staff are being prepared to adapt to news of their imminent redundancy.

https://theconversation.com/mcmindfulness-buddhism-as-sold-to-you-by-neoliberals-88338

 

[Arnie Pye]

In its original Buddhist settings, mindfulness is inseparable from the ethical life.

And yet my impression of modern life is that ethics are considered to be an optional extra in so many facets of life.

The rapid rise and mainstreaming of what was once regarded as the preserve of a 1960s counterculture associated with a rejection of materialist values might seem surprising.

The people who are supposed to reject materialist values are the poor, so that they don't expect anything of the rich when the rich don't need them. At the same time, what little money the poor have is supposed to be spent on making the rich richer.

 

[erin]

Mindfulness can be helpful in some instances to a minor degree. But to present it as a cure is pure con. It is not even the decoration on top of the cake. Its sugar dust while the whole cake (health) is missing.

 

[Trish]

The real problem is the selective appropriation of Buddhist practices, stripped of their ethical and philosophical insights. As a result, mindfulness practices are too often presented and taught without adequate acknowledgement of the power structures that are themselves an important source of our distress.

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

Mindfulness can be helpful in some instances to a minor degree. But to present it as a cure is pure con. It is not even the decoration on top of the cake. Its sugar dust while the whole cake (health) is missing.

that cake is probably taking a long time to bake because its using organic gluten free flour that has been grown from wheat in a buddist temple that has been threshed by virgins that have a propensity for hand washing? Hopefully they can enlighten us with something more nourishing soon?

Perhaps I need the inspirobot thread?

 

[zzz]

I found the final paragraph of the article to be a good summary of the issues involved.

Stripped of its ethical and contextual roots, mindfulness-based practices borrowed from Buddhist and Zen lineages risk shoring up the very sources of suffering from which the Buddha set out to liberate himself and others. But practised correctly, mindfulness – aligned with and informed by acknowledgement of powerful institutional sources of suffering – can be a pathway to critical engagement and resistance.