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The president of the Círculo do Entre-Ser association said meditation practices cannot be divorced from traditional Buddhist ethics, even though those ethics can be secularized.
Paulo Borges, president of the Círculo do Entre-Ser Association, inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, professor of philosophy and meditation, Eastern thought and philosophy of religion at the University of Lisbon, president of the Portuguese Buddhist Union and founder of PAN, has just published a new book in which he reflects on the origins and consequences of the meditation trend.
Perhaps never before have there been so many discussions about meditation and Mindfulness In the West it was just like today. How to explain this phenomenon?
I think it has to do with the fact that we live in an era of accelerated civilization, where more and more is produced and consumed, and people think that this is how we will find happiness, peace and well-being. But the opposite is happening: people are increasingly susceptible to stress, anxiety and attention disorders.
In the 1970s, while practicing meditation at a Buddhist retreat, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn had an intuition: to take meditation techniques from a religious context and secularize them and make them accessible to everyone. Since then, it has been proven that regular practice has many benefits, helping to develop areas of the brain that are usually rarely used, which has led to Mindfulness Whether you are going into corporate, school, healthcare. But all these benefits are side effects of meditation, because its goal is much more than that: the holistic development of human, cognitive and emotional potential.
A Mindfulness Are you becoming a victim of your own success?
I think so. Unfortunately, this tends to happen with many spiritual or methodological alternatives, sometimes when they are successful they tend to decline and be used as tools for other purposes. Mindfulness Today we are at a crossroads: it clearly has many benefits, but when does it become Mainstream There may be many misunderstandings about your original mission.
People started meditating because Cool Or it’s popular and they use it to reinforce the same paradigm of thought, the same egocentrism or goals that are not necessarily the common good. But it cannot be divorced from traditional Buddhist ethics, even if those ethics can be secularized. It’s impossible to talk about soothing our hearts and being happier if we are not more empathetic, compassionate and supportive people.
New book released today. Meditation, the freedom of silence. From mindfulness to awakening consciousness It is a reflection on these issues.
On the one hand, it is a critical reflection on a new business that is beginning to emerge and is very thriving. MindfulnessHasty and expensive training supposedly allows people to practice alone or even teach. This is incompatible with the tradition of meditation, which is taught only after decades of practice. Today, there are courses that grant a diploma in eight weeks. Meditation is becoming a school thing. One pays to be trained and then receives a certificate to be able to teach others.
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