Between being a placebo and a straight up pseudoscience(if I even were to call it a “science”) in my opinion “mindfulness” is a type of pavlovian conditioning design to establish a self-empathy defense mechanism within our minds.
I’ve been to “mindfulness events” for executives and corporate, where people claim to let go of their ego only to look down on anyone who is not as “open minded “ as they are.
Overall is another balancing act between our “ego” and “super ego”. But I guess it does “works” for some individuals.
I'm trying, but I can't find a way to understand what you describe in terms of my experience with mindfulness practice.
Conditioning for what? Defense against what? It just seems entirely disconnected from my experience, which is "just" a combination of deep relaxation and a sensation of being more alert to (some) mental impulses rather than blindly following them (all the time). It is not a miracle cure for anything. It won't give you mental superpowers. But it offers a different way of looking at things that sometimes offers surprising insights.
I'm sure there are some incredibly poor events for executives and corporate, given the money you can potentially make, but that says very little about mindfulness and more about these types of events.
I agree with your argument discribing the fact that, I should not judge a single chronological event as means to an end. I should rather reason by first principle rather than by analogy.
Yet experiences are a often influenced by various psychological and environmental componets. The fact that we have different experiences is absolutely natural, thus I’m capable of comprehending your argument.
I was simply stating my thought analogy based on my past experiences.
Since is rather hard to measure such statements (in a quantitative way) I shall be skeptical of other people’s “experiences”. Thus staying true to my thought process, unless I manage to find a comon ground by truly “experiencing” what some call “mindfulness “.
>I’ve been to “mindfulness events” for executives and corporate, where people claim to let go of their ego only to look down on anyone who is not as “open minded “ as they are.
They're doing it wrong. Gloating about supposedly getting rid of one's ego is pure irony. As Alan Watts once said, "getting rid of your ego is the biggest ego trip going"
Try it! Sit down. Turn off anything distracting. For five minutes, close your eyes, don't move, focus on your breathing, and whenever you get a thought, let your mind pick it up, examine it, and then put it back down and out of mind. Let your focus come to rest on your breathing.
I’ve been to “mindfulness events” for executives and corporate, where people claim to let go of their ego only to look down on anyone who is not as “open minded “ as they are.
"In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few."
Sorry, I should have added an explanation for my quotation.
The parent post (rightfully) pointed out that some teachers feel superior to their students. The core of buddhism (from which insight meditation comes) is that suffering is a result of attachment, since everything is non-permanent.
These teachers may be attached to their perceived accomplishments in their practice, leading to a feeling of superiority. This is a well-known trap in meditation practice.
Hence Suzuki's quote: mediation practice should be treated with a beginner's mind, with openness and no preconceptions. Feeling better than your students is a contradiction to that, it starts with the preconception that you are better/more enlightened.
I have to admit that I find it difficult to write this comment, since it is paradoxical or perhaps even self-contradictary.
The quote refers to an idea in Zen Buddhism called shoshin, or "beginner's mind". The general idea is that the more you believe you are an expert on a subject, the more closed off you become to new ideas and ways you can improve. Instead, shoshin encourages you to approach all things with eagerness of a beginning.
If you're interested, you should read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, which is a short book collecting some of Suzuki's teachings.
I can second that recommendation. My brain prefers the more intellectual writings about zen, but I'm aware that this is somewhat counter to the whole point of zen. This book comes closest to getting me into the kind of mindset where I want to go and meditate. It's also just a really nice collection of 'sermons' to 'meditate' upon.
Not the OP and not in any way an expert, but the way I read it: the original post is completely correct -- insofar as it has been written. One could think, "I have examined it and determined it to be completely without merit". Having done so, there is no further need to examine -- because it is without merit. This is obvious.
On the other hand, you can think of it like the proverbial box, of which we are often encouraged to think outside. You can examine the entire box and discover that it holds nothing. But if you never look at the outside of the box, perhaps you will never see what others find valuable.
To bring it back to more concrete terms, to the extent that the original poster is looking to find a pavlovian response, they will find it. And from there, the rest follows by simple logic. But if you are looking for something else (or, in fact, nothing), then perhaps you will find something else.
I often find this when I talk about more technical topics; TDD, for instance. TDD is often a waste of time when applied the way many people apply it. Having studied a lot about TDD, many people are wedded to the definition they have created. Eventually they get disillusioned when it doesn't work. When they examine it, they realise that it can't work. That is the expert's mind. But the secret is that they are not doing TDD. If they throw away the expert's mind (in other words, don't do it the way that doesn't work), they have a chance of discovering TDD that works.
Disclaimer: I meditate and enjoy it. TDD helps me be more productive. YMMV.
I see where you are coming from and I thank you for taking your time to answer in such detailed oriented form.
Is true that “if you look for it, you will find it”, Yet experiences are a often influenced by various psychological and environmental componets. The fact that we have different experiences is absolutely natural, thus I’m capable of comprehending your argument.
I was simply stating my thought analogy based on my past experiences.
Since is rather hard to measure such statements (in a quantitative way) I shall be skeptical of other people’s “experiences”. Thus staying true to my thought process, until I manage to find a common ground by truly “experiencing” what some call “mindfulness “.
Mindfulness is a type of mental training for achieving a balance between attention and awareness and a strong concentration that can be used to study your mind.
I’ve been to “mindfulness events” for executives and corporate, where people claim to let go of their ego only to look down on anyone who is not as “open minded “ as they are.
Overall is another balancing act between our “ego” and “super ego”. But I guess it does “works” for some individuals.