Mindfulness and the Berggruen Institute.. Yours is an extremely insightful critique of the modern ‘mindfulness’ movement.
There is a peppy advert that runs on public radio in Iowa for a holistic health clinic that combines all health modalities up in Iowa City also using mindfulness. Is the kind of thing that TM could have capitalized on except that TM was so focused on establishing its own franchising of exclusive TM trademarks. The thinking through and the redo of the mental health policy within TM last year opened up the view and policy thinking about integrating ™ and all modern health modalities more. http://portals.mum.edu/Customized/uploads/guidelines-for-mental-health.html http://portals.mum.edu/Customized/uploads/guidelines-for-mental-health.html Also, The books, Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation and Super Mind: How to Boost Performance and Live a Richer and Happier Life Through Transcendental Meditation seem to be a competitive push-back against the modern cultural empire of all that is ‘mindfulness’ in the marketplace now. yifuxero writes: thx....I've been thinking of contacting Berggruen and informing him of the same point you have made; but I doubt he'll listen. Even more depressing is that the Mindfulness Center at UCLA (a few blocks from Berggruen's Center) focuses "modern" psychiatry and apparently completely avoids the transcendentalist component of the original Mindfulness originating in Buddhism. They've unfortunately appropriated the techniques and downgraded them into a set of mind/body exercises intended to operate on a superficial level. Here's another UCLA center - of East-West Medicine - that operates in association with the Mindfulness Center. Looks like those UCLA people have capitalized on some trends that eventually could amount to something "transcendental" but probably not soon. It's somewhat ironic that the SIMS Movement started there, and down the street on Gayley Ave with various people associated with Jerry Jarvis. First lecture I heard re: TM was at UCLA by the Wallace and Winthrop Brothers and then later by Jerry. MMY came there in (1968?). Don['t have time to explore the reasons why UCLA was the original hotbed of the Student's Movement but didn't amount to anything permanent; while there's currently a burgeoning Mindfulness Movement. An important factor is the restrictive nature of who can become a teacher. Any psychiatrist at UCLA can put a feather in his cap by becoming a Mindfulness teacher, without any fuss from a corrupt organization. This will add to his/her prestige since knowledge of Mindfulness gives one the appearance of inside knowledge into the inscrutable and mysterious ways of Eastern traditions. Unfortunately, they leave out the transcendentalist part. I'll dig deeper into this by contacting some of the faculty. Should be interesting to hear what they say! http://cewm.med.ucla.edu/ http://cewm.med.ucla.edu/ ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : He didn't mention the Buddha. No, transcendentalists/ transcendentalism like is in the core of cultivated Buddhistic experience of nirvana is not a philosophy. Great spirituality in the heart of experience likely would get overlooked and not qualify for the 1 million dollar "Think tank" prize for an in-the-head philosophy system. Of course great transcendentalists like an Emerson or a Yogananda or a Maharishi likewise are not listed. -JaiGuruYou ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <yifux...@yahoo.com> wrote : Think tank established by billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, located on Santa Monica Blvd. in West L.A. Offers a 1M prize for the best philosophical ideas. Appeared on Fareed Zakaria's GPS program last Sunday He mentioned the following people as brilliant examples of people whose ideas have dramatically shaped the world: Socrates, Confucius, Jesus, and Marx. He didn't mention the Buddha. Berggruen http://berggruen.org/ Berggruen http://berggruen.org/ Philosophy + Culture Center Advisor and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen Berggruen Philosophy + Culture Center View on berggruen.org http://berggruen.org/ Preview by Yahoo