So Time magazine tells us that the U.S. Marines are into Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. My first reaction was that using MBSR to increase the efficiency of a killing machine was a bad idea. Meditation is not a self-improvement program; quite the opposite, it lowers the boundaries between people until the meditator realizes that there are no boundaries at all-we all have the same consciousness. We are all the same person. That’s obvious to long-time meditators and it’s nonsense to self-centered people who want to take MBSR courses in order to “get ahead in life.”
I have long objected to the demotion of Buddhism to just another self help program. But lately I have changed and no longer object to the mainstreaming of MBSR even if it is done for bad reasons.
Meditation changes the mind and even nasty people who practice it for mean reasons will change. A sniper who wants to become a better sniper will gradually realize that the target is not another person. Professional military people will gradually realize that it is their own fears and distrust of others that create the need for militarism in the first place.
So rather than continue to bemoan the obnoxious use of MBSR by corporations to get their employees to work harder, we can rest assured that that unintended consequences will arise. The better Marine will become a worker for peace. Everyone who gives MBSR a chance will realize that the self-centered reasons behind their decision was based on ignorance. Â Meditation, even when commenced for all the wrong reasons will work its magic and produce consequences that were not foreseen.
Perhaps we need a Surgeon General’s warning – Caution: Meditation may nurture compassion for all living things and lower the barriers between people. We may start a meditation program to get benefits and discover that the biggest benefit is the realization that we are already whole and complete, just as we are, and we don’t need anything.
Thich Naht Hahn has some good techniques for developing mindfulness, for ringing bells of mindfulness, throughout the day. I haven’t mastered all forty nine of his techniques yet, but it is one of the things I’m working on. Practice never ends…
Present Moment, Wonderful Moment.
