Introduction
As very well stated by Jeff Wilson (2014) in his book Mindful America, “How Buddhism moves into new cultures and becomes domesticated: in each case, members of the new culture take from Buddhism what they believe will relieve their culture-specific distresses and concerns, in the process spawning new Buddhism (sometimes, crypto-Buddhism) that better fit their needs” (Wilson, 2014, p. 3).
Mindfulness in its true form is practicing and taming the mind to learn to live in the present without thinking about past or present while observing from a distance our own self and our thoughts which continue to flow in our mind. Meditation is not concentration or focus. Meditation helps in increased concentration and a razor-sharp focus; however, those are just the ripple effects. Attaining this is possible in many different ways and following various methods because if we look around, in history and present, many people have achieved this following one or the other practice including Buddhist meditation which is one of the most followed practices in the word. However, if you follow something, you have to follow it in its entirety or the meaning and the goal changes completely, sometimes towards undesirable goals as it is happening in the west for so many decades. And if somebody user, or rather misuses a practice like Buddhist meditation for something as bad as an abuse of various kinds towards others, it is nothing but immortal. We’ll see about the misunderstanding and tweaked Buddhism, meditation practice adopted in the west to fit into the culture and taking a short cut to solve the problems or misusing it for some other interests.
There was a famous conference in the month of March 1993 for around 10 days in India in a beautiful Buddhist city Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. This was between over 20 western Buddhist teachers and a few locals. Four days of this meeting was done with Dalai Lama, his holiness, and three other lamas. This conference was held to discuss the issues or problems which were occurring to bring Buddhism to the West. These teachers are from varied practices from Tibetan to Theravadas.
Some of the problems or issues raised and discussed here
• Teachers were being taken as gurus without a proper check or test/ examination
• Unrealistic idealization of gurus
• Buddhist teachers were not necessarily conducting the practices with the ethics of Buddhism
• Ethical behaviors versus true realization
• Students were also not properly examined before giving them and Tantric beginnings
• The way in which teacher’s training was conducted (nuns and monks)
• A highly talked issue of practicing psychotherapy using or integrating Buddhism
This was a major and important evidence of how Buddhism was being misunderstood by people, changed in the culture, and misused by many self-centered practitioners while getting a bad name in the west at that point in time. But this was just the tip of an iceberg which was getting bigger and bigger. However, as there was no possibility of controlling, with the time it took many directions and with tweaked and incomplete knowledge going from one hand to another and one mouth to another, now after over 20 years since then, things have worsened.
Body of the Essay
As mentioned by Hanh (2011), let’s first look into the meaning of mindfulness and the three characteristics on which Buddhist mindfulness is based. Mindfulness can be understood as a mind’s state that comes through using meditation in which the practitioner or the meditator is always aware of what’s happening within him, in his thoughts, experiences both inner and outer, and he or she accepts this with compassion and other qualities like patience. One very important aspect which is sometimes left out of the whole paradigm is that the meditator has to be nonjudgmental of any of his or her feelings and the experiences. Whether pleasant or disturbing, the observer just looks at them as an outsider or from a distance without liking or disliking them (Hanh, 2011).
Sami (2001) mentioned that according to Buddhism, it is based on three major characteristics:
• Anicca (Impermanence) – No matter what it is or how attached we are to something or we suffer due to something, it has a fixed and limited duration. Nothing lasts forever and everything has to disappear sooner or later
• Dukkha (Suffering) - Satisfaction is temporary and everything that exists is always unsatisfactory. Nothing exists on which one can rely and nothing can ‘bring’ the true happiness
• Anatta (Non-Self) - Everything in this world is deprived of a self. It is a misconception of an entity which is self-inherited (Sami, 2001)
While addressing the students or the disciples in France, Sasana (1999), explained that these are the three basic characteristics of the whole Buddhist mindful meditation practice. However, these need to be understood well and in some detail. Anicca is a word from the pali language which is a combination of ‘nicca’ and ‘a’. Nicca means permanence or continuity and anicca is the opposite as we use an ‘a’ before nicca. This word is used to explain whatever occurs in this world, seen or felt by us, in destined to decay and it starts as soon as it is born, happens or appears. Some phenomenon occurring in itself is the impermanence. Anicca is applicable to each and every possible phenomenon or thing. Nothing is out of scope. Therefore, the consciousness of everyone is going through ever changing mutations and feelings, even when these are in the form of meditative experiences, mystical achievements, or are vague are by nature only are temporary, not permanent. As soon as we attain something and feel we have attained, we realize that it was temporary and temporary. We are just on a journey and this is not the end goal. Just like everything else, this also has appeared and will now disappear (Sasana, 1999).
Sasana (1999) further explains that dukkha means the suffering or the pain, the sorrow. It is a characteristic of the world where we all live. According to the Buddha, dukkha is the main characteristic of life due to which the suffering is manifested always. The suffering can take any form such as some kind of sadness or any difficulty that we face. Sometimes we are separated from a thing or a person who is our loved one. It is a real fact that there are infinite instances and possibilities of happening something which hurts us. This is the fact of our existence and life. (Sasana, 1999).
Finally, Anatta which is the most difficult to understand out of the three characteristics is when our individual existence is non-existing and it is omniscience. All in all means Anatta. Everything is one and we as an individual doesn’t exist. Thus, self-inheritance is nothing; there is no ego or no self. It is one universe and everything is part of it. When Prince Siddhartha renounced the world and its pleasures and followed deeply many spiritual practices and exercises, never getting the satisfaction, he realized and in the complete awareness of his attainment he understood the Anatta (Sasana, 1999).
Gunaratna (1927), in his book, explained that many teachers teach the meditation little differently from each other. There are several practices followed across the globe. Some follow concentrating on an object, some visualize that they are going to a source of power, and some simply do a meditative yoga. However, this is mostly based on Vipassana which is based on focusing on the breath to become aware of all the sensations and feelings on the body and mind without judging them and just observing them till they go away and vanish. This follows the three characteristics and practitioners not only understand it but also feel and see it. Practicing it for very long time, as a daily practice, the mind learns it at the conscious and subconscious level and applies to every situation in life. Knowing that nothing is permanent, nothing can satisfy, pain and sorrow are a truth that exists and there is no oneself, the person gradually attains a state of mindfulness and becomes very stable (Gunaratna, 1927).
Coleman (2001) tells us how this practice came to the west. There are many theories and scripts available; however the most common and validated is this. In 1893, Chicago, the world parliament of religions, sent over 10,000 letters to various religious groups across the world possible as an invitation to gather there. This resulted in an unheard of a gathering of so many leaders of religious groups and it opened the doors of a religious life in America to the faiths of easterners. There were many Buddhists in this parliament as well however the most impactful was the Sri Lankan Buddhist; Anagarika Dharmapala. It was the seed of Buddhism outside east. Many teachers and followers migrated to the west and started teaching and practicing. Some were learned and some were just beginners who taught whatever the understood (Coleman, 2001).
But are these concepts and practice rightly taught and followed in the west? Is it in its original form there? As we saw above that in the conference in 1993, there were many issues which were well known related to the practices in the west, it is evident the answer to these questions is no.
Mindfulness has taken a different role in the west and it is more of a strategy in psychology rather than a meditation practice. Many books and papers were published where misuse of the practice and wrong ways of teaching have been shared. Media has also glorified and created sensations around it by introducing it incorrectly to the general public in the west. It is sometimes introduced as a new quick fix for depression or stress and anxiety, addictions etc.
Even though in its original form, Buddhism is not a religion, however in the west in the seventeenth century, many scholars there called it a religion when they misunderstood the meditation as a religious act sitting in from of a statue of a man. The images of Buddha were fetched from India by Romans and Greeks who distributed them across the globe. People with incomplete knowledge perceived it as a God’s symbol, whereas in reality it is a symbol of awakened or mindful.
Germer et al. (2005) published their research and mentioned that even though, the mindfulness practice of meditation is very old rather ancient, in the west it was not very popular since its introduction until 1940. Carl Jung was one of the first psychology theorists who introduced this practice as part of psychotherapy in his book “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” in 1939 (Germer et al., 2005).
Germer et al. (2005) claimed that these ideas from the east did not completely catch on in the west until the 1960s, when there was a huge cultural change, and people were getting influenced by bands like the Beatles and people like Bob Dylan. The Beatles, and such groups or people kind of provoking the masses with something new for them called meditation and yoga. In the year 1971, a former psychologist from Harvard, wrote in his book ‘Be Here Now’ about these practices and the benefits. This spread the practice of meditation across Harvard, however, the practice was followed in a wrong way. Later it was used in the cardiology department of Harvard where Doctor Herbert Benson claimed research of treating heart diseases using this practice (Germer et al., 2005).
As Zinn (1979) mentioned that after this claim of Benson the studies by various scholars and doctors on meditation drastically increased by late 1970s. Psychiatrists also started to include the practice in different therapies and claimed that this is a quick fix for all mental problems. Soon enough, Buddhist meditation, at least by its name, started to be used largely in the psychiatric practices. In the year 1979, a program was developed by John Kabat-Zinn for stress reduction (Zinn, 1979). This was in the medical school at Massachusetts University. He mentioned and said that this program is focused on people with anxiety or severe and chronic pain. People who continually suffer will be benefited from this program. Instead of practicing meditation for a long period and for the entire life as a healthy practice, he offered this as a therapy for eight weeks. He said this program will help the patients generating awareness about them and they will be able to accept their lives and will start living in the present. Baer (2006) mentioned in his writings that this program became so successful that the medical school at university launched a ‘Mindful Center’ dedicated to this therapy in the year 1995. It gradually was adopted by more patients who were suffering from cancer or heart problems (Baer, 2006).
Many researchers and authors have collected a lot of instances and examples of the misuse of this practice by many people. As we have seen above, one of the many misuses has been using it commercially for the business purposes and implemented and tried on many followers in an improper form without the proper understanding by the followers. It was sold by marketing it as a quick fix and easy solution for all the daily life problems, including anxieties, fears, stress, pains, sorrow, bad relationships, weight management and even some serious diseases like cancer. There is evidence when people blindly followed these practices in an improper form taught by fake gurus and harming themselves rather than benefitting.
As Rawlinson (1997) explains in the written work, there were even extreme misuses of the practice. One of them is sexual abuse of students or followers by the teacher. Based on a research, it was found and published by Rawlinson that a very famous teacher in Los Angeles called Maezumi had many affairs with multiple students and he was admitted to a rehab center for alcoholics (Rawlinson, 1997).
Another example given by Tworkov (1994), there are many such incidents where the teacher was either in a physical relationship with multiple students at a time or was abusing them sexually. For example, in the year of 1979, a very famous western Buddhist teacher Eido Roshi’s declared sexual relationships with many female students (Tworkov, 1994).
Even today, there is so much news, which is published every now and then about such incidents in the west by practitioners and some teachers. The irony is that the ill conduct and misuse is not only limited to sexual abuse. When the teachers are not ethical and have addictions like drugs or alcohol and display this behavior in public, the students and especially the blind followers, start to behave in a similar way just to follow their teacher. This creates a lot of issues and problems of the society and gives a very bad name to the Buddhist meditation practices without knowing that this actually is not the practice itself but the misuse of it.
Horgan (2003) has written that sometimes when the students start to think that they are like God or Buddha based on the enlightenment experience that they get initially, the teachers start beating them with sticks. They’ll beat up so hard and abuse the students with violence. It sometimes goes on for 5 to 10 years and finally, students give up and become different. Rather than a positive impact, it gives them mental scars for life (Horgan, 2003).
Koestler (1960) wrote in his famous book that Richard Rumbold was an enthusiast for the meditation practice. He decided to live in a monastery for a few months. He went to Shokoju which is a Kyoto monastery. He saw and later shared the practices followed in that monastery as to how teachers beat the students very badly for small disciplinary offenses (Koestler, 1960).
Conclusion
As we have seen in the above pages and understood what Buddhist Mindfulness meditation is and what are its basic nature and characteristics and how it has been distorted in the west by teachers and followers due to various reason including self-interests, lack of or incomplete knowledge, commercializing, addictions and fame etc., in these years the Buddhist meditation practice in west has completely taken a wrong direction. With so many published articles, researches, a bad incident, unethical behavior and fake teachers, the practice has got a bad name in many places in the west. This is not because something is wrong in the meditation practice but due to the misunderstandings and misuses of the practice.
One has to understand that meditation is not psychotherapy and meditation is not a medical cure for physical diseases. Mediation definitely makes the practitioner get awareness and helps to accept everything while giving a lot of mental strength, however, it is not something which has to practice as a short term medical exercise or psychotherapy lessons. Psychotherapy and traditional meditation can go hand in hand however never to be seen as one.
Another important thing to consider and follow is, meditation should be understood along with its characteristics and should be followed in its entirety. Half knowledge is worse than no knowledge and this applies to meditation as well just like anything else. Meditation is something where we are practicing and training our mind and thus, any wrong process may have severe bad effects on our life as a whole. Students shouldn’t follow the teachers blindly and must use some common sense. As Buddha said, “don’t follow or believe me unless you experience this on your own” while meditating or experiencing the awareness. When a teacher gets too violent and gets out of control, the students must understand that the teacher is not a real follower of Buddhist meditation as he is not mindful.
Last but not the least, a proper guru-student relationship with ethics has to be followed while entering into this relationship. It is hard to understand that students were following a person who was involved physically with many partners.
Buddha was from the east, however his knowledge is not restricted to any place or region, religion, community, group, ethnicity or any other attribute based on which we can diversify and divide the human race. Anybody who understands the practice well can follow the Mindful meditation and make it a part of the life to become enlightened. However, anybody who misuses or makes somebody misinterpret this noble practice is harming himself or herself, the followers, the society and the world.
References
Baer Ruth, A. (2006) Mindfulness-Based Treatment Approaches: The Clinician’s Guide to Evidence Base and Applications.
Coleman, J.W. (2001). The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition. New York, NY. Oxford University Press.
Falk. J. D., (2009). Stripping the Gurus – Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment. Toronto, ON. Million Monkeys press.
Germer, C., Siegel, D., Fulton Paul, R. (2005). Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. The Guilford Press, New York.
Gunaratana, B. (2011). Mindfulness in Plain English. Somerville, MA. Wisdom Publications.
Hanh, T.N., (2008). Buddha Mind, Buddha Body – Walking towards enlightenment. Mumbai, India. JAICO publishing house.
Horgan, J. (2003). Why I don’t dig Buddhism. Scientific American.
Koestler, A. (1960). The Lotus and the Robot. Macmillan.
Monk, Sami, D. (2001). What is Mindful Meditation. Retrieved from http://en.dhammadana.org/dhamma/3_characteristics.htm
Sasana Monk. (1999). Explanation of the characteristics of Buddhist meditation. Retrieved from http://en.dhammadana.org/dhamma/3_characteristics/anicca.htm
Rawlinson, A. (1997). Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions. Chicago, IL. Open Court.
Tworkov, H. (1994). The Buddhist review. Tricycle.
Wilson, J. (2014). Mindful America: The mutual transformation of Buddhist meditation and American culture. New York, NY. Oxford University Press.
