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Saving Mindfulness

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From the Neo-Liberal Agenda

You’ve read the articles. The McMindfulness hit pieces that claim just noticing things without judgment doesn’t sound like a great way to advance a progressive agenda.

Techniques for handling the suffering caused, according to some, by unregulated, bat-shit-crazy, late-stage Capitalism are seen as inherently conservative, not challenging the existing power relations. Mindfulness, with Neo-Liberal characteristics, is palliative, not revolutionary.

This critique is often paired with the idea that the Individual-Effort path to Enlightenment is a self-absorbed distraction from the Real Problems, the structural problems that lead to inequality and a generally fucked up world.

So you got that? Stop your navel gazing and join a collective action directed at meaningful institutional transformation. You know which one I mean, just go do that.

Ronald Purser managed to write a whole book about what I just covered in a few paragraphs, but he never identifies the efficacious direct action he evidently prefers to palliative care. Maybe he was hoping meditation would produce Super Protestors so all that Protesting would finally lead to real change — because of all the new and improved vibes!

Actually, that is what I’m hoping, except for the Protesting part.

The standard Mindful response to the views Purser expresses is a calm statement distinguishing self-aware from self-absorbed. And now, please contemplate that, grasshopper.

Just what a self-absorbed person would say, thinks Purser.

I would be willing to bet real bitcoin that Ronald Purser and Jon Kabat-Zinn agree broadly on goals. I think a lot of people do, not everybody, but a lot of people. The big difference comes down to making it happen, getting from Here to There. That’s the heart of the accusation about Mindfulness: It’s Not Making Positive Change Happen in the World

I don’t believe we will ever get from Here to There and I see Positive Change as an Apple of Discord, an idea the Gods threw at us so we’d squabble forever about what it means instead of challenging them. I’m semi-old and my concept of what’s positive is different now than it was five years ago. Good thing I’ve never been very successful or I’d have a lot of change formerly known as positive to undo.

The existing institutions of society have nothing to fear from me at this point, if they ever did. I’m just trying to create nano-scale alternatives in a few areas I know something about, without a very clear plan. Working with other people in diffuse networks, something larger than myself.

Full Disclosure: I’m not even sure I actually am a separate self.

The implications of being deeply connected are pretty radical. New social relations for sure. Mindfulness is too important to do on our own.

How many people does it take to build a new world?

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Harvard University non-violence researcher Erica Chenoweth says only 3.5% of the population forced unpopular regimes to step down in The Philippines, Tunisia, and the Republic of Georgia. I remember each one of those events, but I don’t remember The Philippines, Tunisia, or the Republic of Georgia turning into paragons of great governance immediately after 3.5% pressure, or ever. Meet the new boss — same as the old boss?

A 2018 study published in Science kicked that threshold up to 25% by asking a different question: “Once a population has converged on a consensus, how can a group with a minority viewpoint overturn it?

Sometimes referred to as ‘tipping point research,’ this kind of change might be more substantive than a potentially performative regime swap. The Science study was empirical and determined it was the consistent commitment to doing something in a new way by a quarter of the group that ultimately changed an established set of protocols.

A quarter of all US adults is around 60 million people; that’s a lot. But according to a November, 2018 CDC study, 35 million Americans are already meditating, 14.2% of the adult population. Over halfway there.

Well, maybe. I don’t know what was at stake for the 75% in the Science study who ended up tipping. What if the 25% were stripping real money and power from some of the 75%? My guess is the most affected members would fund the rest of the 75% to resist strenuously.

When strong interests are threatened, the ‘tipping point’ model may not describe all the variables, such as Violent Armed Resistance. In our blockbuster cultural fantasy movies, even this can be overcome, usually in about two hours of cinematic narrative. All you need is a dedicated team with superpowers.

This solution to the problem of Sociopaths with Big Guns (SwBG) is so popular that millions of people all over the world pay significant fiat currency to see it enacted over and over on really big screens. It obviously doesn’t threaten existing power relations.

What does threaten existing power relations is thinking, which is the opposite of watching the same movie over and over.

Hannah Arendt, who studied and fought against 20th century totalitarianism, referred to how it works in real life as, ‘the banality of evil.’ People on auto-pilot, just repeating phrases. Conditioned through voluntary media infusion to react within precise pre-set parameters.

I am not aware of any Superheroes taking on this problem.

Not that they lack mental powers — the Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz) can scan the entire universe in a second, host Zoom calls in his brain, and even make The Joker sane, for a while anyway. X-Man, Spectre, Dr. Strange … there are many superheroes with mind reading and/or telepathic powers. They tend to take on defined adversaries in mind reading and telepathy battles, instead of working to de-condition the population as a whole.

We don’t need any more battles and we don’t need any more superheroes focused on eliminating evil forces and managing to keep them right in place thank you very much.

We need superheroes focused on mindlessness and the banality of evil. Their superpowers need to unlock all the different ways that people can gradually begin paying attention, begin thinking and talking with others.

They would be the X-Meditators, connecting people everywhere in a network of practice with no limits.

Meditating socially accelerates the change. Inner training, then outward expressions that are plain to see. Session Leaders with savvy can bring individuals together for shared experiences with impact. There is no formula to be learned, just a form of leadership that emerges in every session every time.

Sessions scale up well in VR. An X-Meditator can be present in a virtual room with a nice crowd of, say, 32 people. One room, one instance. As more people come, new instances are created. There can be hundreds of instances and everyone in every room will feel like they are present with the X-Meditator and 31 other people.

Apps have their role as commodified chunks of meditative presence. But live connection with others is the way to experience X-Meditator superpowers.

All X-Meditators are non-normative. They have suffered and fallen from grace, every one. The superpower X-Meditators have comes from walking straight into their suffering without knowing what would come out of it.

Team members are all equal, but team pictures have a foreground and background. A picture is a snapshot and a gentle giant is at the bottom of this one.

Mondo Samu

A distinctive name is nice touch for the big heart all teams need at the center.

Teaching, training, and relaxing a group of stressed up people all at the same time without a script is a superpower.

In 2020, Mondo Samu extended his X-Meditation leadership into VR where over 5,000 people attended his Mindfulness Monday, Meditation with Keoki, and Recovery Dharma sessions.

Haroun

He grounds us into the week without a mention of increased productivity; he says we are doing it just to be present with each other.

Listening to him suggest an open curiosity about things I thought I already knew made me want to check them out.

Haroun leads gently and directly, a superpower that makes it ok for anyone to follow, even when they are more used to leading themselves as I am.

Parisa Rose

Her voice and her avatar are irresistible, helpful attributes for a self-proclaimed radical.

Radical Acceptance she and others call it, the counterintuitive idea that it’s good to feel the parts of life and ourselves we least want to feel.

In a world where the Freedom to Not-Feel is permanently enshrined but never discussed in polite company, promoting pain takes a superpower. The power to help us believe it could be worth it.

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Source: https://arvrjourney.com/saving-mindfulnesss-26e72ba1c445?source=rss—-d01820283d6d—4

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