Mindfulness and the Dangers of Meditation

[Aloka]

Soto Zen teacher Brad Warner talks for approximately 15 minutes.




Any thoughts about the video?

[philg]

Always good to listen to him. I did a lot of research on mindfulness in a secular context a few years ago and have a few good links to different aspects if people are interested. Brad discusses the secular aspect put into practice by people who are well meaning but have not been through years of the practice themselves so can't comment from first-hand experience of some of the issues which may arise. The UK government studied the secular use of mindfulness and produced this Mindfulness Nation report https://www.themindfulnessinitiative...-nation-report where they say that mindfulness is an essentially human activity which can be totally removed from any religious context.

The NHS in the UK has this to say when using mindfulness to reduce stress and anxiety https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress...n/mindfulness/ and, for a more corporate view, there is this Corporate Mindfulness Programs website to look at http://www.businessintegral.com/serv...ning-programs/

As Brad says, there is a lot of stuff out there about mindfulness in a non-Buddhist context. He goes on to say that even within Buddhism there are different views of what mindfulness is and how to go about mindfulness practice. Personally I see it as one strand of Buddhist meditation which is part of a balanced set of meditation practices. In terms of 'right' mindfulness Brad suggests that both the practical as well as the theoretical parts of mindfulness are necessary. I would add taking it 'off the mat' too.

If you are really interested, these are some of the other links I used in my research:

1. Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...78400701598298
2. What’s the Difference Between Mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation and Basic Meditation?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ira-is...b_3347428.html
3. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
https://contextualscience.org/act
4. The Hakomi Method
http://hakomiinstitute.com/about/the-hakomi-method
5. 6 Benefits of Practicing Mindfulness Outside of Meditation
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...ide-meditation
6. Beyond McMindfulness
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-pu...b_3519289.html
7. McMindfulness -the Marketing of Well-Being
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog.../mcmindfulness

[justusryans]

Thank you philg, for the work you did researching all those links!