Mindfulness. An ancient practice passed on by spiritual leaders that can now be taught by an accredited teacher who’s paid for a two-day training course. Mindfulness is everywhere. There’s mindful parenting, mindful eating, mindful politics, mindful business leadership, mindful… soldiers. We’re told it reduces stress, anxiety, depression, blood pressure. And it’s being sold for billions.
So has something sacred been co-opted by capitalism? Or is it actually a good thing more people are trying to ‘be mindful’?
This week on The Case we’re looking at four things to consider when it comes to mindfulness; the downsides, the science backing its benefits, the secularisation and the monetisation of it.
THE DOWNSIDES
In a world where we can barely use a toilet roll without having a scroll, where we’re multitasking like no one’s business, we probably need some time out. And what could possibly go wrong when we’re finally left alone with our thoughts?
“If you're feeling a bit anxious and you then have to put up with a magnifying lens on all of those experiences, for some people it just makes everything a lot worse,” says Dr Nicholas Van Dam, a senior lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Nicholas Van Dam, who practices mindfulness himself, estimates up to 10 percent of people will have an adverse experience.
“They can experience depersonalisation or feel like...they're not connected to their body, people can have psychotic episodes, people have massive increases in a sense of suicidality,” he said.
He adds: people with a history of mental illness practising this can be prone to relapses of depressive episodes.
So it’s best not to jump in the deep end with things like intensive retreats, according to Senior Australian Monk in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, Bhante Sujato.
“Don’t do anything extreme...Get a gentle, gradual, everyday practise and build up from there. Don't be in a rush,” he said.
THE SCIENCE
Mindfulness hasn’t been studied for as long as it's been practised, so the scientific evidence isn’t exactly robust.
Dr Van Dam’s work found many of the studies claiming benefits were poorly designed, with inconsistent definitions and very few control groups. In short, benefits were being oversold and side effects undersold.
But he says there is evidence mindfulness can make you feel less stressed, help with various mental illnesses and even pain. Though you won't see those benefits after a two-day workshop.
“Most of the evidence that we have is based on either extremely experienced meditators...or people who've done a fairly rigorous and structured, systematic course of training,” he said.
We’re in a spirituality meets science kind of moment and research will likely go on to further prove what meditators have known for millennia.
Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm was a theoretical physicist at Cambridge University in the UK. He says while it’s nice to have evidence about the benefits of mindfulness, we don't really need it.
“If you fall in love with someone, you don't get your brain scanned to find out whether it’s true love or not. You feel it,” Brahm said.
“One of the problems with science is they neglect the fact there are things in this world we don't need to prove because we know them, we feel them,” he added.
“That emotional wisdom is something science doesn’t spend enough time on.”
THE SECULARISATION
Mindfulness was once part of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. With ‘right mindfulness’ also came right view, right conduct, right effort, right speech and so on.
“It’s like a person who is cold and they want a heater to keep warm. But then the heater is part of a car which can take you many more places, it's one part of a much bigger vehicle,” Ajahn Brahm said.
“When mindfulness is taken a little bit away from where it belongs, you’re missing out on so many more aspects that can make it more powerful.”
So divorced from its wider context, it’s kind of like… A sniper?
“They're very aware of their surroundings, they have to be perfectly aware of the wind, the environment...They know exactly what's going on in their body. They know their heartbeat,” Dr Van Dam said.
Put them both in an MRI, and a sniper and a monk probably won’t look that different.
BUT… And it's a big but: Dr Van Dam says a sniper’s end goal is to kill someone and therein lies the rub. Mindfulness should be about compassion and kindness, not just coping with stress better.
THE MONETISATION
The practice has now been dubbed McMindfulness. But the Buddha definitely didn’t charge for his teachings. So it’s a bit of a grey area when big companies like HSBC Bank or Facebook or Google get on the bandwagon.
Buddhist Monk and author Gelong Thubten has worked with all of those companies and says it’s about helping the individuals within them.
“When I go into a company to teach, I'm not interested in the company's profits, but I'm interested in human happiness. If I can help them be happier in society, it's social work. And that might help efficiency, but that's not the main reason for mediation,” he said.
“[Mindfulness] is about the motivation. Why are you doing this? To make the world a better place?”’
He says some might start mindfulness practice from a very capitalistic or materialistic perspective, like “I'm just doing this technique to make efficiency greater or make myself feel better.”
“But as you meditate the ego starts to change and transform and compassion will start to grow...So I think the method itself purifies the motivation.”
Gelong Thubten says mindfulness isn’t the property of Buddhism and that it’s a good thing more people are doing it. He says he’s even ok with people making money from teaching it (we all have bills to pay after all), as long as it comes from a place of compassion and the will to help others.
“I think we need this now because we are very polarised in our culture. There’s a lot of finger-pointing, judgmentalism, a lot of anger, and sometimes people feel very isolated,” he said.
THE VERDICT
The plain fact is people do it and they find it useful, according to Australian Buddhist monk Bhante Sujato.
Bhante Sujato says the pitfall of spiritual practices generally is that life can become all about “me and my.” But mindfulness is about looking after each other and “how we as humanity and as a community can find that deeper sense of connection.”
If we can build a daily practice around that - whether it’s in an ashram or on a paid app - then surely that can only be a good thing.
