[hackingthelema]

I often wonder what the world would be like if the Buddhist sciences of the mind (e.g. mindfulness) were taught at all levels of society, as a priority, and TFA mentions it near the end, to say it's not enough:

> Meditation is a useful tool – but we actually need to stop the people who are pouring itching powder on us. We need to band together to take on the forces stealing our attention and take it back.

I'd argue the 'attention stealing' -- the 'itching powder', as the article called it -- is all in your head. It does exist, concretely, of course, in the form of social media, video games, etc. but their power over you -- the itchiness -- is something I find is seen for what it is through mindfulness. If we teach people proper control over their own minds, we put the power in their hands to evaluate new technologies and services mindfully.

I would sooner fight for teaching proper mental hygiene to people than trying to regulate every possible idea under the sun (as it suggests at the end). You DO own your own mind, as TFA says at the very end -- so take control of it!

[curun1r]

I've done a bunch of Buddhist trainings, 10-day retreats and such and, for me at least, the saying "no plan survives contact with the enemy" seems to apply. I've yet to be able to carry what I've learned forward into a modern lifestyle. I'm able to keep some amount of discipline for around 2ish weeks following my period of isolation from the world, but I eventually find screen time and work pressures overwhelming my ability to resist. I get the feeling that meditation is an artisanal solution to an industrial problem. And teaching people to survive in a dysfunctional society rather than addressing that dysfunction directly isn't the right way to deal with it.

[hackingthelema]

10 minutes of meditation, consistently & properly performed once or twice a day over time does a lot more good than any temporary boost like a retreat. In Mindfulness in Plain English, Venerable Henepola Gunaratana says:

> When you first start meditation, once a day is enough. If you feel like meditating more, that's fine, but don't overdo it. There's a burn-out phenomenon we often see in new meditators. They dive right into the practice fifteen hours a day for a couple of weeks, and then the real world catches up with them. They decide that this meditation business just takes too much time. Too many sacrifices are required. They haven't got time for all of this. Don't fall into that trap. Don't burn yourself out the first week. Make haste slowly. Make your effort consistent and steady. Give yourself time to incorporate the meditation practice into your life, and let your practice grow gradually and gently.

The way 'mindfulness' is taught and the business of retreats and training gets in the way of the real work, which takes place every day and in normal life, a little at a time. It doesn't need to be complicated.

[Barrin92]

I'm sure every blue collar worker and mother of two has the time and temperament to sign up to the Bene Gesserit school

It's amazing how far the ideology of the unfettered market economy has seeped into our lives to the point that the idea that we should retrain the entire human species to fend off media manipulation seems somehow more practical than simply putting an end to the unethical business practices of an industry.

Imagine if a local company was pouring waste into the river and someone argued the solution was to offer anti-poison resilience training rather than stopping the problem at the source.

[hackingthelema]

'Bene Gesserit school'? How hyperbolic. I am talking like 10-15 minutes of meditation a day. I used to do it in the break room for 10-15 minutes twice a day while working at Walmart or elsewhere. It is no issue at all. I'm not sure what you have in mind that would be more complicated than that!

> retrain the entire human species to fend off media manipulation

Mindfulness assisting in opening one's eyes to media manipulation is just one of the benefits, not the only one. There are many benefits to teaching it to all.

[xwdv]

One way that would really help achieve better mental hygiene for the masses would be if we had some sort of sensors that could detect when a person’s attention is being diverted away from the task at hand, and remind them to refocus. A person could then see a sort of screen time type summary of how long they are being productive and when they are wasting time on mindless garbage. Perhaps even employers could provide bonuses to those workers who maintain the highest productivity times, which over time would encourage people to improve their mindfulness in day to day life.

[hackingthelema]

I wouldn't mind knowing more. Do you have any links to research or work in progress in this area?

The Buddha had a lot of great ideas, but it was over 2000 years ago. If, perhaps, we can teach mindfulness in a way that is more consistent and available to all (like a focus-detection feature in devices), I would definitely support it if it results in the same changes in the brain. Since changes induced by meditation (both acute and long-term) are detectable with brain scans, this seems like something easy to test and compare with traditional mindfulness teachings and practices.

[dragonwriter]

> One way that would really help achieve better mental hygiene for the masses would be if we had some sort of sensors that could detect when a person’s attention is being diverted away from the task at hand, and remind them to refocus.

I suspect that no, constant nagging wouldn't improve “mental hygiene”, in any useful definition of that term.

I also suspect it wouldn’t improve productivity, only stress.