"A quiet revolution is happening in America." So says Tim Ryan, Ohio congressman and author of A Mindful Nation, which documents the spread of mindfulness meditation across the US, and argues for its widespread adoption as a way to favourably affect the country's healthcare system, economy, schools and military.
Just published, the book is significant not so much for what's being said – evidence for the benefits of mindfulness has been piling up in scientific journals over recent years – but for who's saying it and how: an elected politician in Washington passionately advocating meditation as a way to face some of the most serious issues facing his country. Ryan himself jokes of hearing about a conversation that took place at a recent mindfulness conference as he walked by: "That's the congressman who's written a book about meditation," remarked one bystander. "Oh, really?" said another. "Will he still be a congressman after the book comes out?"
Ryan may not have to worry. The practices he recommends are drawn from Buddhism, but commonly taught as secular disciplines, and (unless I missed it) the B-word isn't mentioned once in A Mindful Nation. Ryan is a Catholic, and positions his plea squarely in the context of western, rather than eastern, tradition – his book is subtitled "How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance and Recapture the American Spirit". He aligns mindfulness with no-nonsense values such as "self-reliance, stick-to-itiveness, perseverance and getting the job done", as well as the softer sounding "connection, kindness, caring and compassion". The book draws on plentiful neuroscientific and clinical data supporting his claims, as well as interviews with scientists who have tested mindfulness on hospital patients, schoolchildren and even the armed forces (meditation practice improved working memory and mood among US marines in the period before deployment to Iraq).
Some Buddhists are uneasy about the mainstream co-option of mindfulness. Whereas meditators in the 60s and 70s allied themselves with counter-cultures, this movement is happening right in the heart of some very conservative institutions – bankers, government officials, doctors and management consultants are among those being sponsored to pay attention to raisins (a typical opening meditation practice) as a way to enhance not just wellbeing but also productivity and creativity.
Buddhism's second noble truth states that the cause of suffering is craving; is the power of mindfulness diluted when taught as part of the culture in contexts that may support craving? Could it even come to be perverted when employed as an instrument for the "pursuit of happiness" enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence, which from a Buddhist perspective might be viewed as a contradiction? Might happiness come from letting go of attachment even to happiness itself? And isn't mindfulness just one spoke of the wheel in the Eightfold Path – what has happened to right intention, right action, right livelihood and the rest?
Jon Kabat-Zinn, the developer of the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme, and a pioneer of secular mindfulness practice in America, was asked at the same conference that Ryan attended about differences between Buddhism and the MBSR approach. Pressed for time in his reply, he elected for two words: "No difference." He then tracked back, and added a third: "No essential difference." The genius of his programme has been to take core Buddhist teachings and practices and offer them in a way that connects with the realities of suffering in western 21st century life – while not compromising on their basic content, and inviting them to be tested through scientific study as well as personal experience.
Whether you call it Buddhism, mindfulness-based stress reduction or something else, if these methods are shown to alleviate suffering then they are worth our attention. If they don't, or if they lose their potency through compromise and dilution, they aren't. Jonty Heaversedge and I refer to this as The Mindful Manifesto, meant not in the sense of an overt programme of meditation-based policymaking, but in the original spirit of the word as something manifest, or plainly appearing. This is also basically what meditation helps cultivate – a plain showing of our patterns of being, which leads to greater freedom to change them, if we wish.
Despite the assertion of traditional American values, Ryan may actually be an important radical, willing to use his influence to trigger a shift in cultural attitudes and practices, leading perhaps to less pursuit and more happiness. Having looked at the science, and experienced the effects of meditation in his own life, he is convinced that mindfulness "will be the next great movement in the United States", and declares that: "I would be derelict in my duty as a congressman if I didn't do my part to make mindfulness accessible to as many people as possible in our nation." As the first mainstream US politician nails his colours to the meditation mast, it'll be interesting to see what happens next, both to Ryan and to American mindfulness.
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