Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

[B. de Corbin]

It's everywhere...

Mindfulness this, mindfulness that... Pull up a cushion, buy this app or book, go on this retreat... For the low price of ______ you can eliminate stress...

Has meditation turned into yet one more new ages cheesey commodity for bored hipsters to conspicuously consume?

Interesting article. Worth reading before responding:

Mindfulness backlash: Could meditation be bad for your health?http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wom...ur-health.html


(And why is it in the friggin' "Women's Health" section??? Is it a fem thing to do?)

[thalassa]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

I don't think the problem is the thing itself, but rather how the thing itself is being marketed and that it is being marketed by (IMO) people that clearly don't know what they are doing for things that it may not go well with. Also, the marketing tends to ignore the very real reality that this is something that takes PRACTICE to be good at before you can use it for those things, that everyone's brain works differently and that perhaps mindfulness and/or meditation needs to be done differently for some people, and that not everyone is going to reap the same benefits or the promised benefits from it.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

I don't think the problem is the thing itself, but rather how the thing itself is being marketed and that it is being marketed by (IMO) people that clearly don't know what they are doing for things that it may not go well with. Also, the marketing tends to ignore the very real reality that this is something that takes PRACTICE to be good at before you can use it for those things, that everyone's brain works differently and that perhaps mindfulness and/or meditation needs to be done differently for some people, and that not everyone is going to reap the same benefits or the promised benefits from it.

Yep, this.

If something becomes popular enough to sell as a commodity, companies will jump at the chance to market it. Marketers draw from needs that people have in order to sell things. Mindfulness and meditation appeals to emotional and spiritual needs, which are pretty tricky to actually fulfil and therefore have a lot of potential for providing a lot of customers. I think the whole practice is pretty sketchy, but the problem doesn't lie in the thing they're trying to package and sell, it lies in the whole practice of packaging and selling complex concepts that take a lot of work to achieve as roads to personal fulfilment. Right now it's mindfulness and meditation, but it could literally be anything. Before it was yoga. Tomorrow it could be nature worship.

Totally different case, but I used to be pretty into stuff like Couch Surfing and ride sharing (like, real ride sharing, where people going out of town posted free seats in their car to share gas money). Now, those have more or less given way to a "sharing economy" comprised of services like Airbnb and Uber, most of which have squat to do with sharing. If you come up with a concept and it catches, it doesn't matter how good it was or helpful it was or responsible it was, someone who wants to make a few bucks will come along and pervert it.

[THANK...]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

I find it funny the author of the article used deep breathing as an alternative to mindfulness meditation... deep breathing is part and parcel of mindfulness, or any form, of meditation. Most of the other alternatives the author gives are also forms of mindfulness meditation.

People's idea of mindfulness is also the problem. The sitting aspect of the practice is to calm the mind and become aware of ones internal universe and not the entirety of the practice. The other part of the practice is being aware of your external universe through observation and paying attention to your surroundings. Zen monks do this by chanting the sutras while cooking, cleaning, et cetera. Mindfulness is also gained with moving practice such as asana yoga, qigong, and fitness. Playing music, especially with others, is a great way to become mindful. Walking meditation where you just walk and breathe and internalize the universe is another method of mindfulness training.

People need to see that meditation itself is just a tool, what you realize during your practice you then take with you to mundane reality. The calmness you gain from deep meditation should be internalized so during high stress and tense situations you can call forth that serenity you gained during practice by utilizing the breathing patterns you performed during seated meditation.

[anunitu]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

Think of it like the freezing therapy thing right now..Cryo-something or other.. Standing in a tank with liquid nitrogen vapor or whatever freezing your cares away.

This thing.

[magusphredde]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

Can you spell F R O S T B I T E ?
I want one of these http://floatationtanks.com/

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

I found the article particularly interesting because, as Thank... pointed out, the people cited in it seem to not know much about meditation. The first woman, the one who experiences anxiety, writes:

The outcome is always the same: when I try to zone out, my brain zones in… on hopes, dreams, or things I haven’t done. Within minutes, I’m making to-do lists in my head, daydreaming about writing a trashy spy thriller, or wondering what type of boyfriend Headspace’s founder Andy would be.

Well duh!!! that's what happens to everybody. That's part of what is supposed to happen! She has to learn to let go of her thoughts, not eliminate them. Or, contrary, focus on them. Or immerse herself in them.

But not get rid of them.

Then, you have a dude from Oxford (who I'd like to imagine knows how to do research):

At Hay Literary Festival this summer, Oxford University professor Theodore Zeldin asked if a pursuit of ‘blank mental oblivion’ was really a noble aim, or whether it was making us inward-focused, stopping us taking responsibility or actively engaging with the world.
"Mindfulness and meditation are bad for people. People should be thinking," he told the audience. "Life is about going out there and meeting people and hearing their thoughts."

Well, duh! again. I've been meditating for a long, long, long time, and the only time I've ever experienced "blank mental oblivion" was when I fell asleep while doing it.

Meditation helps one to concentrate, to think clearly, to think with less prejudice.

To me, it looks like we've got people talking about things they know nothing about.

And I think that's the problem, and that's what makes meditation look like a cheesy catchword.

It seems to me that this is what people often mean when they talk about "cultural appropriation" (although I think this is the wrong term. People do this even within their own culture) - the adoption of "form" while being ignorant of "content."

A person sees a depiction of a person in meditation, and attempts to copy the image. But it isn't the outer appearance that is the thing, it is the inner, hidden (occult) thing that is the thing.

Do not mistake the finger pointing for the thing pointed at, Grasshopper.

[Näre]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

That "blank mental oblivion" probably depends on the person. I quit (trying) meditation because that was all I got and I know it's not meditation. (It's also easy for me to get into that state even without meditation.)
Seems like not everyone has the same starting point but I've rarely seen this issue mentioned in any meditatiom guide. It always those one size fits all 10mins a day that will change your life. Good marketing, (in some cases) not so impressive results.

[THANK...]

Re: Has "meditation" become a gimmick?

"Blank Mental Oblivion" is just a pessimistic and misunderstood phrase for Zazen or Chan ("seated meditation") where the goal is the complete awareness of Emptiness. It is not just the blankness of the mind but the feeling of connection with your entire body and the flux of your senses dancing with your environment and essential self (usually described as feeling at One with the universe/divinity; feeling like you are in the womb again). I have gotten the feeling not only through traditional Zazen practice but also after ceremonial ritual, qigong, internal boxing, or realization after contemplation. You could even call it Gnosis.

That is another problem with pop-meditation; they make it seem like the goal is to just shut off thought and feel happy. The truth is you do not simply stop thinking and suddenly you are happy, it is more like your emotions cease as thoughts become pure vibrations that emit frequencies of colors (supposedly your neurons and blood vessels if you see blues and reds like I do) and a feeling of being in a sphere of awareness and calm. The external world and chattering mind disappears and you are left with pure awareness. Sometimes it doesn't last that long and is extremely difficult to attain such a state, even after years of meditation, and that is what pop-meditation is lacking - the ability to teach one how to experience the extraordinary through simplicity.