In schools in New York City and in pockets around the country, the use of inward-looking practices like mindfulness and meditation is starting to grow. Though evidence is thin on how well they might work in the classroom, proponents say they can help students focus and cope with stress....It's the religion corporations love! Remove the pesky "God" character, and you're good to go.
“It used to be that you wouldn’t say ‘meditation’ in polite company,” said Bob Roth, executive director of the David Lynch Foundation, a charitable foundation founded by the director of “Blue Velvet,” that promotes and teaches transcendental meditation to adults and children, including those at Brooklyn Urban Garden. “Now we’re working with all the large banks, we’re working with hedge funds, we’re working with media companies. People are having us come in as part of their wellness programs, and that wasn’t the case even two years ago.”
“We’re putting it in a lot of our schools,” Ms. Fariña said about mindfulness, on the first day of school, “because kids are under a lot of stress.”...Oh! We're still saying "Christmas"? I guess it's good for balance when the religion you're practicing in public school is not Christian.
Last year, [Public School 212 in Jackson Heights, Queens] converted a large closet in a subbasement into a room devoted to mindfulness, complete with dim illumination and a string of rainbow Christmas-tree lights, allowing users to switch off the harsh fluorescent light overhead.
IN THE COMMENTS: About that Bob Roth quote — "It used to be that you wouldn’t say ‘meditation’ in polite company" — Terry says: "When was that? Just another bit of liberal fantasy." And I say: "After the Beatles had their bout with the Maharishi, being into TM marked you as a bit of a flake." That's why we all got the joke in "Annie Hall" in 1977, when Jeff Goldblum (unknown at the time) made that phone call:
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“It used to be that you wouldn’t say ‘meditation’ in polite company,”
When was that? Just another bit of liberal fantasy.
Let them take naps
"“It used to be that you wouldn’t say ‘meditation’ in polite company,” When was that? Just another bit of liberal fantasy."
After the Beatles had their bout with the Maharishi, being into TM marked you as a bit of a flake. See the "Annie Hall" clip with Jeff Goldblum.
If meditation counts as religion, then the bar is set pretty low.
I figure that most religions include:
1) One or more deities who:
a) Are still living;
b) Know about Earth and care about humans in some way;
c) Are functionally omnipotent;
d) Solely, or jointly created the world (and maybe even the universe);
e) Know of some objective standard of right & wrong, and may have communicated it to humans.
2) Some theory of life after death either through reincarnation, or afterlife in some sort of paradise or place of punishment.
Arguably, belief systems like Scientology, and maybe some Zen forms, or Confucianism do not explicitly involve deities.
But meditation without doesn't meet any part of this test. It's like saying fasting is a religion, just because it's practiced in some religious traditions.
Not only do you get religion without that pesky God, you get recess without that pesky exercise!
I like to teach the Cheerleaders about Transcendental Masturbation.
Keep breathing, girls: steady breasts.
I am Laslo.
Ann Althouse said...
"“It used to be that you wouldn’t say ‘meditation’ in polite company,” When was that? Just another bit of liberal fantasy."
After the Beatles had their bout with the Maharishi, being into TM marked you as a bit of a flake. See the "Annie Hall" clip with Jeff Goldblum.
10/24/15, 8:05 AM
So, almost 50 years ago? Or almost 40 years since "Annie Hall".
The children are just meditating, it's not TM. No mantra.
"The children are just meditating, it's not TM. No mantra."
What's the difference with or without a mantra? The mantra makes it religious but without the mantra, it's not? That's the line you'd like to defend?
"After the Beatles had their bout with the Maharishi, being into TM marked you as a bit of a flake"
Half a century ago? Meditation is about as trangressive and modern as boys wearing their hair long.
It's all serious in the Mindfulness Room until the first boy farts.
Then they will be kids again.
I am Laslo.
I thought the Supreme Court ruled that even a non-denominational "moment of silence" was impermissible?
Some (Many?) schools forbid even the use of the word "Christmas".
Humans are hard wired for religion. TM is better and less destructive than environmentalism with global warming mixed in.
When I was in 4th grade, I believed in God and said my prayers. The world made a lot more sense if you believed that a just, benign presence watched over things. I didn't know anyone who practiced meditation. Ten year old boys would be unlikely candidates for such a process, but whatever works. I think teaching children that there is a God and that there is a point to behaving well would work better.
"I thought the Supreme Court ruled that even a non-denominational "moment of silence" was impermissible?"
That was in a particular case where there was reason to think the purpose was to advance religion. The children were told it was a moment of silence during which they were allowed to pray.
There have been hundreds of scientific tests done on people meditating, not only TM'ers -- from new meditators to very long term Buddhist masters. The effects on the physiology are real. You could call meditation a mental exercise with verifiable mental and physical effects and benefits.
The whole point of Maharishi was to remove meditation from religion and put the practice into the realm of science and health so that people could get the benefits without the entanglement of religion.
RChatt wrote:
"The whole point of Maharishi was to remove meditation from religion and put the practice into the realm of science and health so that people could get the benefits without the entanglement of religion."
Then why bother? The purpose of religion may be to give you eternal life, but paradoxically it is not about improving your health.
@Terry With your religion you live a life of struggle for the sake of the hope of an eternal afterlife. Meditators live for the joy and bliss of life right now with expanded awareness. With an expanded consciousness one realizes the eternity of life, so you don't have to die first. That's why people bother meditating long term. It's totally your choice.
PS -- You can be a meditator and also have a religion. They are not incompatible.
Replace God with a god complex. When has that ever gone right?
Human philosophers and their followers tend to develop a narcissistic orientation that leads to unprecedented violations of human and civil rights including elective abortion and cannibalism of virginal human lives that debase human life. And lesser evils like class diversity schemes that denigrate individual dignity, politically favored congruence to established exclusion, class warfare to stoke prejudice and conflict, etc.
"You can be a meditator and also have a religion. They are not incompatible."
Yes but only deep meditators can suck up bathtub water through their asshole. It's a talent limited to yoga and TM.
Except for those meditation disciplines that posit a deity, the others claim a sort of merging of the self with the Universe. The concept of self, and the self itself, simply evaporates and all that is left is the "One".
Sounds like religion to me.
"PS -- You can be a meditator and also have a religion. They are not incompatible."
You can combine multiple religions. Many religions are in fact combination religions. But some people have a religion within which they want to raise their children, and they don't want it combined with another religion or religion-like practice imposed by the state during compulsory schooling. And some parents want to raise their children with no religion at all.
Even if you want to define religion narrowly in determining what is permitted in public schools, meditation seems to be a form of psychotherapy. Why is the state imposing treatment? It says the students suffer from "stress." Who decided that? All the students? If they really believe that, I'd recommend that they first apply whatever psychological expertise they have to the project of stopping stressing the students?
Here's the Wikipedia article on syncretism, "the combining of different, often contradictory beliefs, while blending practices of various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merger and analogizing of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus asserting an underlying unity and allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths."
Read about:
3.1 Ancient Greece
3.2 Ancient Rome
3.3 Bahá'í Faith
3.4 Barghawata
3.5 Buddhism
3.6 Caribbean religions and cultures
3.7 Christianity
3.7.1 Mormonism
3.8 Druze religion
3.9 Indian religions
3.10 Islam
3.11 Judaism
3.12 Other modern syncretic religions
Meditation as a practice is not a religion anymore than going to a baseball game is a religion, despite the fact that some people might treat it like a religion. Religions have to do with God and proper behavior and rituals to put you in the mood. Meditation has nothing to do with any of that. There's no discussion about God or how to behave morally, etc. Meditation isn't psychotherapy either. There's no analysis of your thoughts and feelings or what they mean or how to adjust your understanding of your life.
Meditation, especially to the extent it promises walking through walls and flying, involves belief and suspension of reason, which makes it a religion, even though there is no god-belief. TM practitioners, as far as I know, don't say "the Maharishi" but simply "Maharishi"(like "the Ukraine" became "Ukraine.")
Furthermore, not all religion involves belief. It can consist of mere ritual, which is why we say, "I floss my teeth religiously." Indeed, children can practice a religion, even though all are born without one and remain without a faith until properly brainwashed.
I don't meditate, but it is simply a method for bringing one's mind to a quiet stillness, slowing or stopping the otherwise-constant chaos of thoughts and perceptions--Monkeymind--that bedevil and confuse so many. It is not praying...except insofar as praying as it is commonly understood can be considered itself a form of meditation.
It can be related to a religious faith and practice, but it doesn't have to be and probably isn't more often than it is. One can even be a Christian and meditate To refer to it as "praying even atheists/liberals/etc. can love" is glib and not accurate.
"Then why bother? The purpose of religion may be to give you eternal life, but paradoxically it is not about improving your health."
Who says? Why not? Who says the purpose of religion is to give you eternal life? Isn't it, in fact, to improve the life one has here on earth?
There comes a point in a discussion, when people refuse to use words with any fidelity to their meaning, that the discussion becomes meaningless. Religion is not flossing, flossing is not religion. I don't know of any "church of flossing" or group of people who identify as "flossers" as a religious identity. Religion as a word means something specific even though there are many different religions. When the word religion gets redefined as meaning “a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance” then you are no longer talking about religion in a serious way, such as: “the sense of the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods or a particular system of faith and worship.” Meditation is not religion.
We do not refer to The President of the United States Barack Obama as The President, but rather as President Obama. We refer to The Pope of the Catholic Church as Pope Francis not The Pope Francis. Followers call out to him as Papa for short as a sign of affection. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as he was known, was called Maharishi for short, also as a sign of affection. Maharishi means great seer, lots of monks are called Maharishi but are not well known in the West. Ramona Maharishi, Maharishi Rajneesh are other more well known maharishis. That’s why the more famous Maharishi was not called The Maharishi by his followers.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in addition to being the founder of the Transcendental Meditation Movement was a Hindu monk so there is no denying he was a religious figure to some, especially in India. He came out of a ancient Hindu Vedic tradition. However his purpose in teaching TM in the West was to make the practice of transcending available to people without requiring any religious obligation. Meditation doesn’t involve belief to work. He never promised beginning meditators they could fly or walk through walls by doing basic TM. Only much later when Maharishi had advanced students did he begin to explore the possibility of realizing ancient Vedic practices such as “flying.” This advanced work by the TM movement developed out of the scientific evidence of increased brain wave coherence in advanced meditators and a desire to explore what is possible with greater brain coherence. Could meditators and scientists today verify the ancient yogic seers' claims? That's a far cry from teaching school children mindfulness — like the difference between teaching 2 +2 = 4 and the study of advanced quantum physics. A person who learns simple arithmetic doesn’t necessarily go on to devote their life to advanced scientific research.
Governence has turned upside down. The 1st amendment clearly limits the power of the govt. The people are endowed with certian inailinable rights. Those rights exist outside the confines of govt. Rights pre existed any govt ever formed.
Now we have schools instituting when, and how, rights are to be lawfuly exercised?
How about the owners of the schools doing as they see fit? Just a thought.
Let's have the kids take 5 minutes out of their day to take some bread and a grape-derived liquid, communally, so to speak.
Oh, come on! Everyone eats and drinks! You can't plausibly claim that just because taking bread and wine together is a ritual observed by some major religions, that it's necessarily religious when we make children do it in school.
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