How corporates co-opted mindfulness to make us bear the unbearable (2015)

Thank you for expanding on your original comment. This makes sense :)

I have a long, long way to go, but some things are much easier, like being made to wait for things, or being contradicted on important issues. Most of the chaotic places I've worked at, I must admit they lasted a lot longer than the amount of time I was willing to invest in them. All of that energy I put into pushing water uphill was appreciated by some of my peers and subordinates, occasionally by my boss, but not one bit by anyone else.

But what's downright alienating is not participating in the faux existential crises that often happen at work and that are pervasive in media.

A bad boss that is used to flogging people to action with mind games (whether they realize what they're doing or not) will simply label you as a problem for not freaking out when they want you to. For going home to your friends and family on Friday because you know the problem is still going to exist on Tuesday, at the earliest, no matter what you do.

> "If we truly become mindful of our existence then our recurrent anxieties become not just a wave we watch pass through our minds, not something to be mastered in order to be a better servant, but a call to take action in order to be more fully alive."

Agreed. The whole point behind meditation and mindfulness is to create a more well rounded spiritual life/existence. Not to ignore the things that cause you distress or pain, but to identify them clearly and untangle issues to figure out how to get past them.

My current company offers a whole slew of "wellness programs" - yoga, meditation, running clubs, etc. Great in theory, but they all take place during "lunch break", are limited to 20 mins or so, and charge (albeit, a small fee). None of these, I believe, are to benefit the lives of the employees but to create a sense of "forward thinking" in the company to encourage productivity.

Want my stress and anxieties to disappear at work and get me to be more productive? Pay more and ask for less working hours.

Language is a funny abstraction to describe these, or any, types of experiences :P But basically what maxxxxx said, one can aim to be equanimous and yet also be committed emotionally. It would be challenging (impossible?) to cultivate equanimity while also not cultivating compassion since one is trying to find peace with whatever they're dealing with.

I had an opportunity to attend a talk where a meditation teacher described his experience dealing with cancer. Prior to being diagnosed he said he had a mindfulness practice outside of formal practice where he would set the intention to be aware of mild discomfort throughout the day and try not to react to it immediately. He provided an example of becoming aware of an itch. Instead of reaching for it and scratching he would try to bring heightened attention to the sensations, discern their qualities (if they were manifesting over a large surface area or small, increasing in intensity or fading, etc.), and try to entertain mind states that had a "if this was going to be my experience for the rest of my life would I be able to make peace with it?" quality. After three breath cycles if the sensation persisted and if he wasn't able to let it just be then he would mindfully scratch an itch. He claimed that working this way, with trivial things like itches or mild joint pain, provided a reservoir of equanimity that he was able to draw from when experiencing chemotherapy and the rest.

While there is truth to that, mindfulness provides the basis for authentic expression of the natural self. And often times, that will mean GTFO of an abusive situation.

How you know whether it really is authentic and not simply a story is that it arises naturally, spontaneously, and effortless. It will have a "deep" marker to it. There is an active test you can apply: try to poke at the action. If it resists, comes up with any excuses, rationalizations, or justifications in order to stay attached to it, then it is still a story, albeit, coming from a very deep place inside of it.

If in poking it, it stays silent and it feels like it is expressed unsupported by any narrative, then that is coming from your authentic self. In other words, it doesn't need your approval or disapproval, or anyone else's, including social norms and corporate policy.[1]

Note: the Buddhist notions don't have a notion of "true self" (or rather, it moves from "no self" -> "true self" -> "no self"). I'm drawing from classical, transcendental non-dual Shaiva Tantra[2] (which inspired and cross-polinated with tantric Buddhist), and it goes with "true self" -> "no self" -> "true self".

The point of mindfulness is your freedom and your state of mind. It's fine if you are inspired to practice it because corporations made space for it (or more cynically, make you do it in order to tolerate bad situations). Your mind is your own, whether you want to be happy or miserable. There _are_ people who will mindfully tolerate bad working conditions as expressed from their authentic self ... and there are many others who won't. You won't know until you have cleared enough of your own obscurations to find out.

[1] The followup is: in tantra, someone's natural, authentic self may be an asshole. If you don't like what your natural, authentic self is, tantra provides the tools for transformation into a different natural, authentic self. However, it is not as simple as changing the narrative, since a change in narrative is merely a change in narrative and not a change in your natural, authentic self.

[2] Christopher Wallis. Tantra Illuminated