Book Review - Mindful America by Jeff Wilson - Intro to Buddhist Studies

 

Wilson, Jeff. 2014. Mindful America - The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978–0–19–982782–4, 270 pages.

 

 

Introduction

 

            Mindful America was written by Jeff Wilson, who is a professor  of religious studies and East Asian Studies. He has written several books on Buddhism and American Culture, including the following:

 

The Selected Works of D.T. Suzuki, Volume III: Comparative Religion. Co-edited with Tomoe Moriya (University of California Press, 2016)

 

Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2014)

 

Dixie Dharma: Inside a Buddhist Temple in the American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2012)

 

Mourning the Unborn Dead: A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America (Oxford University Press, 2009)

 

He did his undergraduate work at Sarah Lawrence College and his graduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as the Chair for the Department of Culture and Language Studies at Renison University College, University of Waterloo, where he currently teaches a number of courses on Buddhism, Religion, Film and Popular Culture.

            The premise of this book “Mindful America” is that over time, the principles of Buddhism have been incorporated into  North American Culture as the idea of “mindfulness”. These principles are divorced from their religious beginnings and applied to numerous situations in our daily lives that were never the original purpose of those practices and principles, some of which run counter to the original intent of mindfulness meditation. From mindfulness practices that children perform in schools, to corporate events, mindfulness is pretty ubiquitous in our modern daily lives. 

 

Chapter Summaries

 

Introduction: Waking up in Mindful America

 

In this chapter, he gives some statistics relating to the infiltration of mindfulness into our cultural milieu. Americans are very enamored with the idea of mindfulness and spent over $4.2 billion on mindfulness-related healthcare practices in 2009, and over 550,000 searches for mindfulness are clocked on Google in each month. It can be found in countless books, news articles, and magazines, as well as in corporate training courses, and even in non-Buddhist churches. Mindfulness is applied to issues as diverse as stress, parenting, sports, addiction recovery, and sexual health and satisfaction.

            Wilson lays out his argument, stating that this is how Buddhism is incorporated into new cultures, as each culture takes the parts of Buddhism that is seen as relieving some sort of personal or cultural distress. He says this spawns “new Buddhisms” that fit the needs of the people. In this book, he uncovers the specific practices and processes that need to happen for a premodern religious practice and cultural product to become available for widespread use in our contemporary society. This incorporation has spurred the development of numerous products, from courses to amulets, clothing, and special “meditation gear”. This is not just a phenomenon in the Americas, but truly a global phenomenon worthy of investigation. I will give a very brief description of the main themes and ideas presented in each chapter.

 

Chapter 1.  Mediating Mindfulness:How Does Mindfulness Reach America?

           

This chapter includes an extensive discussion of how the term “mindfulness” came to be used so ubiquitously for the foundational meditation practices of various forms of Buddhism. As early as the 1800s there was some idea of “mindfulness” being extracted from texts that talked about “sati” - for example “samma-sati” as “right mindfulness”. Over time the term came to be accepted for a particular set of practices that we consider mindfulness in our contemporary world. In the early parts of the 20th century, these practices were more limited in the scope of their use than today and retained a great deal more of the religious underpinnings than they do today.

           

Chapter 2. Mystifying Mindfulness: How is Mindfulness Made Available for Appropriation?

 

In this chapter, Wilson examines the various ways that mindfulness is made palatable to

American audiences through a number of strategies. He calls these processes “mystification”. These are processes and practices that obscure the origins of mindfulness, distancing it from its Buddhist origins, by recontextualizing them as non-religious, secular, “spiritual” or “well-being” and health-related practices. By doing so mindfulness has become increasingly popular in the West, as people benefit from them, without being burdened by attached religious practices, doctrines, or belief systems.

 

 

Chapter 3. Medicalizing Mindfulness: How is Mindfulness Modified to Fit a Scientific and Therapeutic Culture?

 

The chapter title gives a pretty good idea of the substance of this chapter - here

describes the processes through which mindfulness has been appropriated by the “wellness” industries and mainstream medical industries, both utilizing mindfulness as remedies for some pretty pernicious problems facing our capitalist society - stress and its comorbidities such as insomnia, weight gain, anxiety, depression, can all be benefited by mindfulness practices, and have the added benefit of being cheap, easy interventions. The process of adapting mindfulness to medical issues helps to further “mystify” it, further divorcing it from its origins, with data and research to back it up.

 

Chapter 4. Mainstreaming Mindfulness: How is Mindfulness Adapted to Middle-Class Needs?

 

            This chapter describes how mindfulness has found its way into the lives and homes of middle-class America, being applied to many issues that are faced by families. In the chapter, he describes how applying mindfulness to problems such as sexual and reproductive health, stress, anxiety, food and body image, and childhood behavior issues has allowed for mindfulness to really blossom into mainstream practices. By improving the lives of Hockey dads and Soccer moms, mindfulness becomes a tool for the middle-class and further divorced from its roots and purpose in Buddhism. No longer is mindfulness about seeking Nirvana, in fact, most of the practitioners of mindfulness may not even understand that this was its original purpose.

 

Chapter 5. Marketing Mindfulness: How is Mindfulness Turned into a Commercial Product?

            In this chapter Wilson describes how mindfulness has become the darling of corporate America, having been commercialized and commodified in a multitude of ways, forming a multi-billion dollar industry. And it isn’t just big businesses that are using mindfulness to generate revenue, it is the foundation of numerous small businesses as well. From meditation cushions and special clothing and “altar” products to retreats, “mindfulness walks”, and books - mindfulness can be found in almost every corner of American life these days. You can take yourself to Walmart and walk out with at least a few mindfulness-related products. No need to travel to a far-flung place on the globe. Advertisers have got a firm grip on how to promote mindfulness to the mainstream via vaguely spiritual imagery. 

 

Chapter 6. Moralizing Mindfulness: How is Mindfulness Related to Values and Worldviews?

 

            In this chapter, Wilson discusses how mindfulness and mindfulness practices are associated with positive character traits outcomes for not just individuals but for society in general. Mindfulness is associated with things such as peacefulness, calmness, and compassion, which are all positive, pro-social character traits. Proponents of mindfulness, including some politicians and corporate CEOs promote mindfulness as a means to achieving peace and harmony, not just at a personal level, but at a societal and global level. Wilson does not disagree with this premise, and also does not do what might be “predictable” - he doesn’t rail against the appropriation of Buddhism and Buddhist practices and philosophy towards all these ends.

 

Postscript: Making Sense of Mindfulness

 

            Wilson's overall claim in this book is that mindfulness meditation as a practice, has been very thoroughly integrated into American culture, as a beneficial component of health and wellness. In the process, it has been demystified and recontextualized in order to distance it from its origins in ancient Buddhist practice, while at the same time acquiring new and novel uses/applications to American problems. The adoption of mindfulness has impacted how people teach their children, organize events, deliver health and mental healthcare, and engage in leisure activities. Mindfulness has been subsumed so fully that it is purported to enhance some of our most intimate moments like childbirth and sex.

 

Critical Analysis

 I think Wilson very skillfully presents his argument and it is very convincing in my opinion. I found this book very interesting and enlightening, and really could resonate with a lot of the issues that he presented. Since reading this I have been paying closer attention to where I notice mindfulness popping up in my daily life and it is really eye-opening to realize just how pervasive it is.

 I would consider Wilson’s methodology in the research and presentation of the material for this book to be very sociological overall and in particular his analysis of the social and economic impacts of the mindfulness industry. He incorporates some anthropological types of analysis, in particular, his exploration of the linguistic aspects of the adoption and adaptation of mindfulness in order to extract it from Buddhism as a whole. He also gives good historical grounding for all of his assertions, in terms of historical Buddhist thought and philosophy, and the spread of these principles in the Americas.

I never really thought about my upbringing in terms of the spread of mindfulness practices, and how that related to the secularization of Religious Buddhist thought in my own personal life, however now that this Pandora's box has been opened I am unable to put the idea back in. I was raised by artists who were very experimental in their lifestyle (compared to my friend's families at any rate). Buddha statues and Hare Krishna gatherings, foreign foods that my friends had never heard of let alone tasted were all pretty much the norm in my household. My stepmother and father both practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM), and I was also taken to the TM center in town and taught to meditate by a “guru”. The person who taught me was Indian, so I wasn’t taught Buddhist principles by a non-Buddhist as Wilson described in the book, but I was encouraged to practice by non-Buddhists. My Uncle and his sister and brother-in-law run a TM  school and teach it at corporate events. From my own personal experience I find Wilson’s book both insightful and his point of view familiar, but also really, it has made me more thoughtful about where the ideas that I have about compassion and peacefulness have come from. Much of my “gentle parenting” style with my kids was also informed by my grounding in these principles of mindfulness as a kid, and they are passing it on to their children as well. Overall, I thought this was an excellent book, and found Wilson's insights to be very relevant to understanding our modern propensity to use mindfulness as a panacea for all kinds of things. I highly recommend that everyone should read this book.