The Art of Losing Control by Jules Evans

The Art of Losing Control by Jules Evans

Author:Jules Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canongate Books


‘His Holiness has instructed us’

In 2012, the Institute held its first public conference, the International Symposium on Contemplative Studies (ISCS), which 700 academics attended. In 2014, it held the second ISCS in Boston, which I attended. It was a huge conference, with more than 1,600 attendees, mainly academics working in contemplative science. ‘When we started in the 1970s, there were fewer than ten people working on contemplative science on the planet,’ remarked neuroscientist Richard Davidson in amazement, as he gazed out over the packed conference hall. The ISCS had at least 300 presentations on how mindfulness apparently helps people cope with depression, negative thinking, anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, addiction, binge eating, PTSD, ADHD and suicidal ideation, while also enhancing people’s resilience, happiness, productivity, compassion, care for the environment and capacity for self-transcendence. The science of mindfulness has now inspired 41 mindfulness centres at American medical colleges, where doctors and patients learn how to meditate.9 This is revolutionising American medicine, by showing the deep connections between mental and physical health. At ISCS, there were also representatives from the UK’s booming mindfulness movement, which is based on a therapy called mindfulness-CBT, developed by Professor Mark Williams of Oxford’s Mindfulness Centre and now available free on the NHS.

No wonder the delegates at ISCS seemed a little giddy. This wasn’t just academic research, this was what Time magazine called ‘the mindfulness revolution’, and it was going to save the world from misery and planetary destruction. The conference was a strange mixture of the academic and the spiritual: one hall was used for poster sessions in the morning, and yoga sessions in the afternoon.

‘What journey brought you here?’ one delegate asked me, staring deeply into my eyes.

‘I . . . flew with Virgin Atlantic,’ I replied.

‘No, what spiritual journey?’

All sixteen hundred delegates rose in reverent silence as the Dalai Lama took the stage. ‘This is the most exciting moment of my life,’ a psychologist next to me said. Several scientists began their talks with phrases like ‘His Holiness has instructed us’. The Dalai Lama told the hall: ‘There are one billion non-believers in the world. The only way to educate them about inner values is through scientific research. They don’t care what a monk says.’

The contemplative scientists burned with a sense of spiritual mission. ‘We are living at a time of environmental crisis,’ Kabat-Zinn told the hall, before leading us in a guided meditation. ‘The only change that will make a difference is a transformation of the human heart.’

Beyond academia, mindfulness is mushrooming throughout popular culture, in apps like Headspace, in courses for employees at companies like Google and Goldman Sachs, in the US Army, in schools and prisons, and in high-street gyms and spas. You can find books and courses on mindful parenting, mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful knitting, mindful colouring, mindfulness for pets. You name it. Thanks to mindfulness, yoga, Transcendental Meditation and other Eastern practices, contemplation has made a stunning return to Western society. Eastern contemplative practices have flourished by presenting themselves as secular evidence-based techniques to improve health, happiness and productivity.



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