For example, mindfulness meditation has been secularized and is being taught to many students with the religious framework removed. This is a good thing insofar as it produces calmer kids who can focus better.
But when you throw out the traditional framework it’s easy to forget that meditative techniques were designed to produce mystical experiences. I experience energy surges and muscle spasms when I meditate. (This is perfectly normal if you’re doing it right.) Meditation creates states of mind so powerful people used to think they were in the presence of God. I feel my sanity untangling while I stare into a Lovecraftian abyss. (Once again, this is perfectly normal if you’re doing it right.) Secular mindfulness programs often throw out the safeguards protecting practitioners from Yog-Sothoth.
The issue is not secularization. It’s reducing meditation into what Jon Kabat-Zinn could fit into a standardized 2-month course.
Danis Bois and the community around him manage to teach secularized meditation quite fine while keeping all the spirtiual depth.
The issue is not secularization. It’s reducing meditation into what Jon Kabat-Zinn could fit into a standardized 2-month course.
Danis Bois and the community around him manage to teach secularized meditation quite fine while keeping all the spirtiual depth.