Mindfulness is popular in hospitals, schools, secular counseling offices, Social Media giants, Silicon Valley firms, the Pentagon and in meetings of global leaders. There is even an app partially dedicated to mindfulness that comes bundled with your iPhone (the Health app). Mindfulness was recently promoted by Hope Channel (video below).
Every year, at least 1 million new meditators arise in the United States alone. “Meditation Has Become a Billion-Dollar Business,” one Fortune headline announced. In a piece in Wired, Robert Wright, author most recently of Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment, argued “How Mindfulness Meditation Can Save America.”
Since many people are confused about this popular meditation practice, we are presenting a brief explanation of it.
There Are Five Basic Principles of Mindfulness
Meditation
Focus on the present moment (as it is)
Let your judgments roll by
Return to observing the present moment
Be kind to your wandering mind
The main goal is to pay attention moment without discrimination, and without being overcome by “thought.” This will reduce stress and exercise the muscle of the mind. Mindfulness comes from Eastern religious principles, and is being presented in our day as a non-religious exercise. It claims to rewire the brain for good.
These same basic principles are found in mystical practices such as Centering Prayer, and walking the labyrinth. Adventist Christians should be alert to the differences between God’s revelation and meditation based on inner mystical sensations, or “non-thoughts.” If we concentrate only on what is within us, we will not find true peace—which the Lord offers us (John 14:27).
The Apostle Paul describes pagan methods of finding wisdom,
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Then he tells us how to find Godly wisdom:
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24).
Notice how Paul emphasizes hearing and learning the truth in Christ. As Christians, we are called to ponder the things of God—but “our meditation …is not our effort to achieve a relationship or to actualize in our consciousness a divine existence that is ours. Rather, our meditation turns to Jesus Christ to learn who He is and what He has accomplished for us. We are told to meditate on whatsoever things are pure, not empty our minds into a transcendental abstraction.
In an article in Psychology Today titled “How to Practice Mindful Meditation,” it explains:
In the Buddhist tradition and in Contemplative Psychotherapy training, we nurture mindfulness through the practice of sitting meditation. There are many different kinds of meditation. For example, some are designed to help us relax; others are meant to produce altered states of consciousness.
Ray Yungen, who researched and wrote about various forms of meditation for over twenty years, said:
True to its Buddhist roots, mindfulness involves focusing on the breath to stop the normal flow of thought. In effect, it acts the same way as a mantra; and as with Yoga (Ray Yungen, “Mindfulness! Heard of It? What Does it Mean, and Where is it Showing Up in Christian Circles?”)
Mindfulness is a Religious Practice
Jon Kabat-Zinn is credited for having brought mindfulness meditation into the medical sector of our western society, and now it has been brought into public schools. One program in California for children on welfare called MBCT-C is a “psychotherapy for anxious or depressed children adapted from MBCT for adults.” A 2015 article titled “How the Mindfulness Movement Went Mainstream—And the Backlash That Came With It” explains Jon Kabat-Zinn’s efforts in bringing mindfulness meditation into mainstream America:
In 1979, a 35-year-old avid student of Buddhist meditation and MIT-trained molecular biologist was on a two-week meditation retreat when he had a vision of what his life’s work—his “karmic assignment”—would be. While he sat alone one afternoon, it all came to him at once: he’d bring the ancient Eastern disciplines he’d followed for 13 years—mindfulness meditation and yoga—to people with chronic health conditions right here in modern America.
However, as the article continues, Kabat-Zinn knew he would have to convince Americans that mindfulness is not a religious practice but rather a scientific one. He knew they wouldn’t accept it if they knew the truth about it, that it is a Buddhist/New Age practice. Kabat-Zinn explains:
I bent over backward to structure it and find ways to speak about it that avoided as much as possible the risk of its being seen as Buddhist, New Age, Eastern Mysticism, or just plain flaky.
His plans to dupe westerners worked.
[H]e approached the challenge by adopting a mainstream and commonsensical American vocabulary that described meditation as a way of paying attention and cultivating awareness in everyday life, and by using practices that were equally accessible and straightforward. . . . Kabat-Zinn’s approach would be to offer training in mindfulness in ways that were implicitly anchored in Buddhist teachings, but in a universal and mainstream American idiom and framework.
He was able to introduce a purely religious/New Age practice while convincing mainstream America that mindfulness had nothing to do with religion or the New Age at all. Once that was accomplished, the rest was easy: “separation of church and state” activists had succeeded in removing “religion” from schools, government, and other public venues. Thus, by “proving” that mindfulness meditation is not in any way religious, it could be welcomed with open arms into the general populace and finally into the public schools. But Mindfulness meditation is dangerous.
In a recent study, it was discovered that the most common side effects of mindfulness meditation were fear, anxiety, panic or paranoia. Some experienced suicidal thoughts.
This was experienced by 82 per cent of those questioned, while 42 per cent suffered hallucinations, visions or illusions and 28 per cent said they had become hypersensitive to light and sound.
These effects are well documented in Buddhist texts as stages along the long, hard path to inner wisdom but . . . aren’t featured in mindfulness/meditation brochures.
Hope Channel
To our surprise, Hope Channel recently aired a program called “Mindfulness—Go Healthy For Good.” In this program, hosted by Nerida McKibben, mindfulness is being promoted by Janelle Macaulay who works for the U.S. Air Force. Here is the video link. The mindfulness part begins at 7:08.
The next time you hear the word “mindfulness,” remember that Christians have something much better. We have the mind of Christ! (1 Corinthians 2:16).
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“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
