The West turns to Buddhist meditation

By Kalakeerthi Dr. Edwin Ariyadasa

“When worldly vicissitudes impact upon a person, he must remain, mind unshaken. That is a noble quality.”
- The Buddha

In the modern world, dominated as it is by angst, the unshaken mind is a rarity indeed. Stress affects all. Tempers are short. Violence lurks everywhere. Hatred, jealousy and intolerance have escalated into epidemic proportions.

Irresistibly persuasive modern media, through their sophisticated messages, ensnare consumer-masses into a fairy world of unending expectations. The inevitable corollary of this phenomenon is a devastating sense of frustration, when the tantalising dreams escape the human grasp.

Men and women, in our time, are always rushed. They hurry to a place only to hurry back. Distractions rend every moment into shreds. Deprived, even of a wee bit of repose, they cannot experience and savour life. Reduced to helpless ‘sleep-walkers’ and automata, they have no time to ‘stand and stare’. Man must awaken into the ineffable beauty of life and its overwhelming joy.

The keen yearning to ‘wake up’ to life, has gnawed at the soul of men and women for ages. Religious teachers have advocated systems to cope with this troubling urge.

Technique

Among all those efforts, the transcendental technique evolved by the Buddha, has proved perennially efficient and universally applicable.

This Buddha-system, known the world over as Satipatthana (Mindfulness Meditation), has currently surged into a massive wave in the west desperately seeking a way out of the anxiety-ridden life-routine they are forced into.

The story of this movement, sweeping across the US and some other regions, was quite impressively chronicled by the globally reputed writer Kate Pickert.

Quite clearly inspired by the Buddhist technique of mindful meditation, this modern system is titled Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

MBSR instructors

MBSR has attained the stature of a scientific ‘mind-Awakening course, the surprising outcome of which is the awareness of the real pulsating spasm of life that lies below the thick carapace of repetitive routines.

The course is so efficiently organised that “there are nearly 1,000 certified MBSR instructors, teaching mindfulness techniques and they are in every state and in more than 30 countries.”

The mindfulness study system has been developed by Jon Kabat Zinn and MIT Scientist. Its pragmatic effectiveness is vouched for by its participants.

The broad approach of this course follows the original Satipatthana system - in Satipatthana (Mindfulness Meditation), the practitioner is instructor to be mindful of all the activities he goes through.

(The original Pali puts it somewhat like this: Gate, Thite, sutte, jagorite, bhasite, tanhibhave sampajana hott. Be mindful when you walk, when you stand, when you sleep, when you are awake, when you talk, when you are silent).

The MBSL practitioners are given some exercises which follow the contours of the original Buddha system. The “author recounts her experience of eating a raisin, as instructed by the teacher. This is what she has to say about the experience: “I’m eating a raisin. But for the first time in my life, I’m doing it differently. I’m doing it mindfully.

Benefits

This whole experience might seem silly, but we are in the midst of a popular obsession with mindfulness as the secret in health and happiness and a growing body of evidence suggests it has clear benefits.”

These evident benefits have enabled this new mindfulness technique to penetrate into quite unexpected segments of society. The technique has been accepted by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Pentagon chiefs.

The classes are quite methodically organised Meditation is imperative meditation that focuses on one’s breath is a direct derivative of Buddhist Ana-pana Sati Meditation. (Concentration of breathing in and breathing out).

The organisers do not characterise the technique as Buddhist to keep the experience entirely free, as a human matter-bereft of categorisations.

In this version, “attention” itself is thought of as a muscle. As any other in the body, that muscle to with gain strength through exercise. And meditation is the exercise for this specific muscle.

Fascination

Mindfulness Meditation continues to fascinate people from all walks of life. To these westerners, inhabiting high-powered social realm, the need for mindfulness is becoming an increasingly essential way of responding to their human destiny.

Influential groups, have taken to mindfulness meditation, with an earnestness that is surprising. In some US companies, each building has its own meditation room.

Prominent factor

Literature on mindfulness keeps on burgeoning. Congressmen campaign for increased federal funds for mindfulness research.

What is taking place in the Western world in the field of mindfulness meditation is quite likely to prove a global trend in the years to come.

In some educational institutes in the US Mindfulness Teaching has become a prominent factor in the curriculum. It is reported that in some areas, via program called mindful schools, online mindfulness training is offered to teachers. A strange development seems to be in the offing. Oriental cultures which received the Buddha’s mindfulness technique as part of their ancient spiritual traditions are now turning to the MBSR guru from the US to inculcate in them the techniques of mindfulness meditations.

We in Sri Lanka could turn to our Satipatthana mindfulness meditation, heritage and instruct our people in this mind-training technique, acquiring whatever benefits we can from the Western innovations.

The younger generation in our country, is specifically important. They are exposed to various influences that breed anxieties in them, even when they are very young.

We could train them in mindfulness meditation. Utilising our own age-old tradition of satipatthana.