

The Long Marriage of Mindfulness and Money - nether
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-long-marriage-of-mindfulness-and-money?intcid=mod-latest

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pvnick
Interesting that they mention mindfulness as we know it today is been gutted
of theological meaning. I would say that is largely true of modern
mindfulness, but it doesn't _have_ to be the case. Christianity, for example,
has a form of prayer called "centering prayer," in which one mindfully
meditates on God while letting distracting thoughts flow away [1]. The
parallels between westernized mindfulness and centering prayer are notable,
and I find it encourages an opportunity for deeper spirituality than the more
ubiquitous conversant prayer ("God, please forgive me for lying and oh can you
please let the Patriots win the Super Bowl"). I have been practicing both for
a couple weeks now and I find I am much better able to concentrate on focus-
driven tasks like reading literature, something I have always struggled with
due to a history of ADHD.

[1] [http://cct.biola.edu/blog/2014/aug/04/when-strivings-
cease/](http://cct.biola.edu/blog/2014/aug/04/when-strivings-cease/)

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westoncb
A funny error in the article: "The Varieties of Religious Experience" was
written by William James, not Henry James—it'd be a very different book if his
brother had written it.

The article tries to give the impression that mindfulness meditation as it
appears in the U.S. is more of a money making gimmick than an effectively
distilled version of the Eastern tradition. Undoubtedly people will try to
make money off of it and you'll have plenty of books/teachers who present it
in a disconnected fashion whose only efficacy derives from the placebo effect
(which will probably be enough for it to spread with good reputation through
corporate culture). That said, there's a pretty long tradition of smart people
who've been trying in earnest to interpret meditation practice and Eastern
philosophical concepts in a Western framework. There's a lot of variety in the
results, sure—but at the same time there's a core set of ideas and practices
that have an internal consistency, and—in my opinion—which fill an important
gap in the typical U.S. life philosophy. In particular, it offers a solution
to the problem of, "what greater ultimate goal can I have for life than
obtaining positive experiences and avoiding negative ones, if I'm basically an
experience machine who will cease to exist after X years?"—without asking
people to have faith in some positive metaphysical system. Additionally,
meditation can be powerfully instructive in letting people see/remember
certain aspects of being human that it's easy to lose after spending years
feeling driven to accomplish some goals.

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dasil003
> _Brendel’s fear is that meditation might make executives too mellow and
> compassionate_

Won't someone please think of the shareholders!

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afarrell
Both of these things lead to indecision

"I don't know right from wrong all the time, I wish I did, but one thing I
cannot be is indecisive." \- Frank Underwood to an Arab in a wheelchair,
justifying his choice to blow that man's legs off via drone strike.

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verytrivial
Deepak Chopra. First sentence. Next!

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vanderZwan
The article neither about him, nor is mindfullness a quack method unverified
by science.

And even if it was, a report on how this method is embraced by Wall Street can
still be worthy of your time.

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sago
> nor is mindfullness a quack method unverified by science

What specific benefits had mindfulness been verified to provide, in comparison
to placebo meditation? I'd be very grateful for any references to peer-
reviewed study.

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vanderZwan
That's a very specific question, and I'm no expert on the matter. Although I
think that comparing it to "placebo meditation" is like comparing two types of
exercise to each other, within the larger debate of whether exercising in
general is useful or not.

Here's a visualisation by Information Is Beautiful, along with the list of
sources used:

[http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-
is...](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/what-is-
meditation-mindfulness-good-for/)

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m_tiYlDIyNpp6WGUgKd5...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m_tiYlDIyNpp6WGUgKd5nTu6r7MySFqIc5MDS0JJSoM/edit#gid=7)

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sago
Excellent. The list of articles is interesting. More has been done than I
thought had been done, and it is interesting stuff. The visualisation I find a
problem, because it masks the nuances of thed studies and verges on the
misrepresentation. But the underlying studies definitely feed my concern.

There is the issue of whether mindfulness meditation is anything more than a
coincidental piggyback on meditation. But there are several studies in the
list that, while not directly controlling for that, certainly provide strong
circumstantial evidence (most of the linked research is not about mindfulness
at all).

So I definitely take back the more extreme tone of my skepticism, (for
whatever that is worth!)

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kylek
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugio_Cent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugio_Cent)

