Thread by @KapilGuptaMD

MINDFULNESS: AN EMPTY PRESCRIPTION FOR THE MASSES

Popular buddhists teach "mindfulness"

The Buddha did not practice it

Mindfulness is for the perpetual student, who has no interest in becoming a Master

When Siddhartha Gautama went into the jungle to seek Enlightenment

He was met by ascetics who prescribed meditation, mindfulness, self-mortification, and various austerities

After six years of performing such austerities

He was left hungry, cold, and emaciated

Despite a full-time devotion to the austerities, enlightenment was nowhere to be found

For the ascetics, this was not a problem

For they were perpetual students who had settled upon a life of prescriptions

But Siddhartha was in search of Enlightenment

Here we begin to see what the world has missed

Practicing austerities is for those who seek processes

Actually getting somewhere is for those who seek an Arrival

Mindfulness is a forced concentration

it is awareness, intentionally placed

Therefore, it is akin to holding up the walls of a burning house

You may hold up the walls for a very short time

But eventually your arms will tire

And the mind will come crashing down upon you

It must be understood that "will" is not sufficiently powerful to subdue the Mind

It must also be understood that no man can "chant, meditate, be mindful, or practice" his way to a True Arrival

If one could, in fact, "chant, meditate, be mindful, or practice" his way to a True Arrival,

Then the ascetics, who are far more obsessed and devoted and adept at such austerities than any of you, would have found their way to a True Arrival

Even if a human knew nothing about "mindfulness," he will be wise to recognize the patterns of societal fraudulence

For these patterns and signs are plainly visible to the naked eye

Society cannot hide its modus operandi

If society lifts a particular concept onto its shoulders

If it creates billboards out of it

If it creates thousands of articles and pamphlets and passes them around to passersby

If it institutionalizes it

Anyone with the slightest street sense will know it to be false

If there are conferences with name-tags that say "hello,"

If there are lanyard-wearing attendees

If there are lectern-adorned individuals standing on a podium

The thing which is being sold is guaranteed to be false and ineffective

Human beings do not create "conferences" devoted to revealing secrets that actually work

They create conferences devoted to ideas that "sound good"

Everything in this society that involves more than two humans is a Show

And there is no shortage of those seeking Entertainment

In order to recoup the costs of the banner advertisements, the lanyards, the podiums, the conference hall, the refreshments, and the "distinguished experts" on stage, a minimum number of seats must be filled at X-dollars per head

In order for these seats to be filled at X-dollars per head, the concept must be made "understandable" to the masses

In order for it to be made "understandable" to the masses, it must be dumbed down

As it is dumbed down into its skeletal fragments, it loses all its power

And all of this stands to reason

For the masses are looking for entertainment in the form of "spirituality"

And the actors on stage can easily create a supply for the given demand

The Truth cannot be found at any conference

It cannot be found in any institution

The rarest of wildflowers grows only in certain rarefied climates, and extreme altitudes

Typically where the footprints of man rarely tread

Man is a bandwagon-jumper

No sooner did he hear of "meditation" that he installed "meditation rooms" in companies

No sooner did he hear of "mindfulness" that he created mindfulness classes for his employees

Man loves fads

Because it is a ready-made identity he can hide behind

A man may "watch" his thoughts until his eyes fall out

He may sit in full lotus until his knees blow out

He may hang amulets around his neck until he chokes himself

He may shave his head and call himself Shanti Deva

This may make him as "spiritual" as they come

But when he dies, he will be buried in the "spiritual grave" amidst the other Shanti Devas who chased spirituality

But arrived Nowhere.

He will die as a "buddh-ist"

Never having become a Buddha

Namaste.