When 'sati' became McMindfulness, something got lost in translation

[bananas]

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/when-sati-became-mcmindfulness-something-got-lost-in-translation/16088

When ‘sati’ became McMindfulness, something got lost in translation

Many of the benefits of mindfulness are little more than hype.

Denyse O'Leary | May 5 2015

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The term “mindfulness” is said to have originated in 1881, with a British magistrate in Ceylon, who began to learn about Buddhist culture while adjudicating disputes between clergy. He considered it an approximate translation for a Buddhist concept sati, which cannot be defined in words, only understood in experience.

It is a reasonable assumption that, in a pragmatic secular culture, the further the concept strays from its original indefiniteness the more likely it will warp into something like “McMindfulness.” That’s the main concern with the “mindfulness” programs sweeping corporate America and finding their way into military training and prisons as well. Sati may be hard to define but the goals of business, the military, and prisons are not (or should not be). So the potential for losing the plot is obvious.

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And as commentator Matthieu Ricard, notes,

It is a bit too optimistic to take for granted that the practice of mindfulness will automatically make you a more caring person. A calm and clear mind is not, in and of itself, a guarantee for ethical behavior. There can be mindful snipers and mindful psychopaths who maintain a calm and stable mind. But there can not be caring snipers and caring psychopaths.

Such criticisms of mindfulness meditation are not necessarily aimed at the practice itself—which has brought acknowledged benefits to many—but rather at hype and pop culture travesties. Especially those that are marketed in an authoritarian setting such as the military or prisons, or the lifetime jeopardy game of high corporate business. To say nothing of “self-enlightenment” projects that attempt to evade the demanding life and attitude changes that a more orthodox therapy might require.

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[HassleCat]

1. Long List

The trendiness of the management culture in the corporate word is shameful. Anyone who has worked as a manger for 20 or 30 years has probably been exposed to at least 5 or 6 or these trends, from total quality management, to six sigma, to the one minute manager, to the Meyers-Briggs, to whatever bogus theory comes along this week.

[safeinOhio]

2. "The CEO that is spoken of,

is not the eternal CEO"

[PosterChild]

3. + 1 (nt)

[PosterChild]

4. + 1 (nt)

[Fred Sanders]

5. Any version of Buddhism, modified for the Western mindset, is better than none at all.