Philosopher: Mindfulness rests on dubious philosophical foundations https://humanities.ku.dk/news/2023/philosopher-mindfulness-rests-on-dubious-philosophical-foundations/ #Philosophy #Society #Culture #Mindfulness #Research #Academia #Academic #Academics #University #Copenhagen @philosophy
"Take, for example, feelings of anger that we might have about the policy decisions of the Danish government. Is it beneficial to view such emotions as if they are passing clouds in the sky with little importance or relation to reality?"
Of course it is useful. It helps us to make our political decisions in a purely rational way. Contemporary Buddhism - for example Buddhadasa and Thich Nhat Hanh - offers many examples of political engagement based on equanimity.
@naciketas @bibliolater @philosophy I’m not sure that claim bears scrutiny. Emotions like anger, grief, disgust etc. are fitting attitudes to injustice and resist it. Similarly emotional responses like compassion, pity, friendship, solidarity can all also motivate us in the right way. Maybe pure reason can motivate us to pursue the right policies, but I doubt it.
@SteveCooke @naciketas @bibliolater @philosophy There's a healthy debate within Buddhism about the proper way to deal with such emotions, but I don't get the sense the author of the original author has really engaged with that debate/literature. I don't intend to try to substitute for that, but briefly, seeing emotions as ephemeral is a teaching tool, not the final analysis of their importance in Buddhism. 1/
@SteveCooke @naciketas @bibliolater @philosophy There's a lot of discussion about, eg, how to use emotions like anger at injustice to fuel efforts at change without allowing that anger to become toxic and unproductive. Learning to master that anger, rather than allowing it to master you, is an essential part of that process. 2/
@SteveCooke @naciketas @bibliolater @philosophy But to be clear, none of this is to deny that there's a lot of "mindfulness" work that is shallow and lacks that kind of nuance - no doubt that's the sort of thing the original author is familiar with and responding to, and to that extent I agree. 3/3
@naciketas Thank you for your comment. From my #reading of the #article it seems that the author finds the notion that all thoughts and emotions are to be considered 'passing clouds' as being problematic.