2018/10/01

알라딘: 정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나





알라딘: 정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나



[eBook] 정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나



전현수 (지은이) | 불광출판사 | 2015-11-27













종이책정가 16,000원

전자책정가 11,200원







페이지 수 312쪽 (종이책 기준) | ISBN : 9788974792787

제공 파일 ePub(32.16 MB)



9.1



Sales Point : 187













인간 붓다 : 그 위대한 삶과 사상





스승은 붓다이시다





고엔카의 위빳사나 명상





전현수 박사의 불교정신치료 강의





고엔카의 위빳사나 10일 코스



eBook > 종교/역학 > 불교 > 불교명상/수행







파욱 수행에서 하는 사마타와 위빠사나 수행의 모든 것을 담은 책. 불교 수행은 불교를 정신치료에 꾸준히 접목시켜온 정신과 전문의 전현수가 세운 불교정신치료의 바탕이 된다. 저자는 파욱 사야도와 그의 제자들에게 직접 가르침을 받으며 수행했던 것을 정리하면서, 본인의 체험을 사이사이 소개하여 독자들의 이해를 돕고 정신과 의사 입장에서 깨달은 불교 수행의 정신치료적 의미를 짚어간다.











여는 글



1장 파욱 수행이란 무엇인가

이 수행의 길에 나서기까지

파욱 수행과 사성제



2장 선정 수행

선정의 의미

선정을 닦는 40가지 방법

들숨날숨에 대한 마음챙김

몸의 32부분에 대한 마음챙김

까시나를 통한 선정 수행

무색계 선정 수행

4가지 거룩한 마음 수행

4보호 명상

마음을 하나로 모으면 힘이 생겨난다



3장 물질 수행

4대 수행

물질 수행

자아에서 벗어난다는 것



4장 정신 수행

정신을 있는 그대로 본다는 것

선정 인식과정

의문 인식과정-욕계 유익한 마음

5문 인식과정

5온의 식별

정신 수행은 어떻게 정신을 치료하는가



5장 연기 수행

연기를 보는 5가지 방법

1. 다섯 번째 방법

안팎으로 5온 식별하기

전생 보기

재생연결의 5온

바왕가의 5온

순수 의문 인식과정

5문 인식과정-5문전향의 5온

5전생의 원인과 결과 식별

미래 생

2. 첫 번째 방법

12연기를 순관하기

무명이 일어나므로 행이 일어난다

행이 일어나므로 식이 일어난다

식이 일어나므로 정신-물질이 일어난다

정신-물질이 일어나므로 6가지 감각장소가 일어난다

6가지 감각장소가 일어나므로 접촉이 일어난다

접촉이 일어나므로 느낌이 일어난다

느낌이 일어나므로 갈애가 일어난다

갈애가 일어나므로 취착이 일어난다

취착이 일어나므로 존재가 일어난다

존재가 일어나므로 태어남이 일어난다

태어남이 일어나므로 늙음과 죽음이 일어난다

연기 수행이 삶의 태도에 주는 영향



6장 위빠사나 수행

위빠사나에 들어가며

물질의 4가지 측면

정신의 4가지 측면

연기의 4가지 측면

위빠사나-무상, 고, 무아 보기

위빠사나 수행이 일상에 도움이 되는 이유



맺는 글



------------------------------





P.38 : 사람들은 정도 차는 있을지언정 모두 사물을 있는 그대로 보지 못한다. 감정에 휩싸이거나 어리석은 상태에서 사물을 보고 살아간다. 그것을 벗어나는 것이 선정 수행의 목표다.



P.58 : 선정 수행은 내려놓는 훈련이다. 마음을 하나의 대상에 모으기 위해서는, 마음이 다른 대상으로 갈 때마다 내려놓고 원래의 대상으로 끊임없이 돌아와야 한다. 그것을 지속적으로 훈련하는 것이 선정 수행이고 그 결과 마음을 하나로 모으는 시스템을 우리 속에 구축한 것이 선정이다.



P.79 : 무색계 선정 경험은 천상 세계나 천상 세계의 존재를 이해하고 그것에 익숙해지는 데도 도움이 된다. 천상 세계는 우리 육안으로는 보이지 않기 때문에 자칫 없는 것으로 생각하기 쉽다. 불교의 세계관은 우리 육안이나 과학으로 증명된 세계에 국한되지 않는다. 붓다나 붓다의 제자들이 수준 높은 수행과 관찰을 통해 본 세계는 천상 세계를 포함한다. 무색계 선정 후에 수행하는 ‘4가지 거룩한 마음’ 수행 때 불교에서 말하는 여러 가지 세계를 경험할 수 있다.





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지은이 : 전현수

저자파일

최고의 작품 투표

신간알리미 신청

최근작 : <정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나>,<전현수 박사의 불교정신치료 강의>,<정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나> … 총 17종 (모두보기)

소개 :

1956년 부산에서 태어났다. 경남고등학교와 부산대학교 의대를 졸업한 후에 순천향대학병원에서 신경정신과 수련을 받고 전문의가 되었다. 한양대학교 의대 대학원에서 석·박사 학위를 취득했다. 신경정신과 전공의 2년 차 때 불교의 길에 본격적으로 들어섰고, 이후 불교 수행과 공부를 통해 경험하고 터득한 보편적 지혜를 정신치료에 적용했다.

2003년에 한 달간 미얀마에서 위빠사나 수행을 했다. 그해 불교, 심리학, 정신의학을 전공하는 사람들과 모임을 만들어 함께 공부하기 시작했다. 이 모임이 싹이 되어 2007년 ‘한국불교심리치료학회’가 창립된다.

1990년에 전현수정신건강의학과의원을 개원한 이래, 불교 수행에 전념하기 위해 모두 두 차례 병원 문을 닫았다. 첫 번째는 2009년 3월부터 1년 동안이고, 두 번째는 2013년 11월부터 2년 동안이다. 이 두 기간 동안 미얀마와 한국에서 수개월 동안 집중수행을 하면서 몸과 마음의 작동 원리를 관찰했다. 2014년 가을 사마타와 위빠사나 수행을 마쳤을 때 불교에 대한 의문이 모두 해소되어 불교정신치료의 체계를 정립할 수 있었다. 그 내용을 바탕으로 2016년 불교정신치료 워크숍을 진행했다.

저서로 『전현수 박사의 불교정신치료 강의』, 『정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나』, 『정신과 의사가 들려주는 생각 사용 설명서』, 『정신과 의사가 붓다에게 배운 마음 치료 이야기』, 『울고 싶을 때 울어라』, 『노동의 가치, 불교에 묻는다』가 있고, 번역서로 『붓다의 심리학』이 있다.





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잘되던 병원 문을 두 번이나 닫고

미얀마와 한국을 오가며 수행에 몰두한 정신과 전문의 전현수

그는 어떤 수행을 했고, 수행을 통해 무엇을 깨달았을까?



정신과 전공의 2년차이던 1985년 처음 불교를 만나, 불교와 정신치료 사이의 공통점에 주목하고, 이후 불교를 정신치료에 꾸준히 접목시켜온 정신과 전문의 전현수. 어느 순간 불교와 정신치료가 ‘둘’이 아니며, 불교가 그 자체로 훌륭한 정신치료임을 깨닫고는 불교를 통한 정신치료를 시도한다.

이를 위해 불교를 더 깊이 이해할 필요가 있다고 느낀 그는 산스크리트어와 빨리어로 되어 있는 불교 경전을 독파하는 한편, 경전에 씌어 있는 내용을 실제로 경험해보기 위해 2009년과 2013년 두 번이나 병원 문을 닫고 미얀마와 한국을 오가며 수행에 몰두한다. 이 기간, 미얀마 파욱 전통의 수행을 통해 몸과 마음의 작동 원리를 깊이 터득하고 본인의 전생과 미래생을 보았으며, 이를 바탕으로 불교정신치료의 체계를 더욱 뚜렷하고 탄탄하게 세울 수 있었다.

이 책은 그가 세운 불교정신치료의 바탕인 불교 수행, 그 가운데 파욱 수행에서 하는 사마타(선정)와 위빠사나(통찰) 수행의 모든 것을 담고 있다. 저자는 파욱 사야도와 그의 제자들에게 직접 가르침을 받으며 수행했던 것을 체험을 바탕으로 ‘파욱 숲속 수행센터’의 프로그램대로 정리하여 독자들의 이해를 도왔다.

이 책에는 다른 수행서에서는 찾아보기 힘든 특장점이 있다. 저자가 정신과 의사 입장에서 깨달은 불교 수행의 정신치료적 의미를 짚어간다는 점이다. 수행이란 수행 자체를 위한 것이 아닌 삶을 위한 것이며, 그렇게 하려면 어떤 점을 유념해야 하는지 짚고 넘어가는 것이다. 수행을 통해서 삶을 바꾸고자 한다면 그의 안내를 이정표로 삼아야 할 것이다.



궁극 물질을 보면 ‘나’로부터 자유로워진다

어느 날, 수행을 지도하는 스님으로부터 손을 움직이려고 할 때 어떤 현상이 있는지 보라는 주문을 받은 저자는, 선정 상태에서 그 모습을 지켜봤다. 그랬더니 손이 움직이는 메커니즘이 보였다. 손을 움직이려고 하자 마음에서 생겨난 물질이 이동하고 분열을 거듭하여 손에 닿았고, 그 순간 그 물질 안에 있는 바람의 미는 속성이 손에 있는 물질 안의 바람의 미는 속성과 함께 작용하여 손이 움직였다.

손동작만이 아니다. 움직임과 말을 비롯해 몸에서 일어나는 모든 현상은 모두 물질의 일어남과 사라짐에 따라 일어난다. 파욱 수행에서는 이렇게 겉모습 안에 있는 궁극적인 물질의 작동 원리를 하나하나 관찰하고 알아간다.

이렇게 몸에서 일어나는 현상을 물질의 일어남과 사라짐으로 보고 아는 것이 거듭되면, ‘나’ 혹은 ‘내 몸’이라는 생각이 없어진다. 그 결과 나에 대한 집착에서 비롯되는 갖가지 고통들로부터 자유로워지는 기반이 마련된다.



유익한 마음과 해로운 마음을 결정하는 ‘주의’의 힘

마음이 복잡할 때는 좋아하는 것을 봐도 심드렁하지만, 마음이 가벼울 때는 바람에 날리는 나뭇잎만 보고도 웃음이 나올 때가 있다. 내가 어떻게 해야겠다고 뜻을 세운 것도 아닌데, 저절로 그렇게 된다.

유익한 마음과 해로운 마음을 관찰하는 수행에서 어떻게 그 마음들이 일어나는지를 확인할 수 있다. 핵심은 어떠한 ‘주의’로 대상을 마주하느냐에 있다. 우리가 눈, 귀, 코, 혀, 몸, 정신으로 대상을 마주할 때 어리석은 주의를 기울이면 해로운 마음이 일어나는 메커니즘이 작동하고, 현명한 주의를 기울이면 유익한 마음이 일어나는 메커니즘이 작동한다.

수행을 통해 이 과정을 알게 되면 자연스럽게 어리석은 주의를 거의 품지 않게 된다. 그것이 자신에게 해로운 것임을 알고 있기 때문에 자연스럽게 현명한 주의를 품게 된다. 자연스럽게 해로운 마음이 줄어들고 유익한 마음이 늘어난다. 그렇다면 무엇이 현명한 주의인가?



있는 그대로 알고 보라

우리는 자신의 생각이나 욕망 속에서 사람이나 사물과 마주한다. 생각대로 보고 욕망대로 순서를 매기면서, 모든 것이 자기를 중심으로 돌아가기를 바란다.

하지만 우리는 세상은 고사하고 자기 생각 하나조차 제 마음대로 하지 못하는 존재다. 모든 것은 제 법칙에 따라 작동할 뿐이다. 여기서 마음병이 생겨난다. 자기 생각대로 세상이 돌아가지 않거나 자기 욕망을 채울 수 없을 때, 이를 자연스레 넘기지 못하는 사람에게 문제가 일어나는 것이다.

제자인 아난다가 스승인 붓다에게 수행을 통해 얻는 삼매의 목적과 이익을 묻자 붓다가 답한다. “목적은 있는 그대로 알고 봄이고, 이익도 있는 그대로 알고 봄이다.” 불교는 인간을 포함한 이 세상의 실제 모습과 구성 및 작동 원리를 우리에게 알려주고, 그 앎을 바탕으로 최선의 길을 선택하게 한다. 다시 말해 불교는 이 세상에 우리의 생각이나 욕망이 끼어들 틈이 없음을 명백하게 일깨워, 세상의 실제 모습을 있는 그대로 받아들이도록 우리를 이끈다. 마음병의 바탕을 송두리째 날려버린다.



불교와 정신치료는 하나다

그래서일까? 불교를 깊이 경험한 어느 정신과 의사는 불교의 핵심을 ‘불취외상 자심반조’(不取外相 自心返照)라고 말했다. ‘겉모습을 취하지 말고 제 마음을 돌아본다’는 건, 바깥 대상에 자신의 욕망이나 생각을 투사하기를 멈추고 세상을 있는 그대로 본다는 뜻이다.

이 점에서 불교와 정신치료는 서로 통한다. 정신치료 역시 실제 내 마음과 다른 사람의 마음이 어떤지를 있는 그대로 알게 한 후, 나를 변화시킴으로써 정신적인 고통이나 문제에서 벗어나게끔 도와주는 작업이기 때문이다. 본질에서 볼 때, 불교와 정신치료는 하나다.



연기를 믿을 때 충실한 삶이 따라온다

연기 수행을 하는 중에 저자는 자신의 전생과 미래 생을 본다. 전생으로는 모두 6가지를 봤는데, 경찰 혹은 군인이었던 생, 개였던 생, 왕자였던 생, 수행자였던 생, 천상의 존재였던 생이었다. 미래 생으로는 4가지를 봤는데, 스님, 천신, 범천, 다시 스님으로 살 것이라 했다.

이렇게 전생과 미래 생을 보는 수행을 통해 삶 또한 원인과 결과에 따라 이뤄진다는 걸 알고 믿게 된다고 한다. 저자는 윤회를 믿는 사람은 자살을 하거나 죽음을 두려워하지 않는다고 말한다. 생이란 어차피 다음 생으로 이어질뿐더러, 현재 생이 원인이 되어 그에 합당한 다음 생이 전개되니, 죽음을 앞당기거나 두려워하는 대신 지금 삶에서 더 충실히 수행하여 더 나은 다음 삶으로 이어질 원인을 준비한다는 것이다.

윤회를 믿고 일희일비하지 않는 것에 충실하고 만족스런 삶의 열쇠가 들어 있다.









마이페이퍼 > 마이페이퍼



작성 유의사항







현재 0 / 280byte (한글 140자 이내)







성철스님은 아라한 도/과 경지에 도달하였을까? 우리나라 선승중 몇분이 수다원 단계에 이르러셨을까? 아마도 성철스님/무여스님 정도? 전현수 박사는 사마타/위빠사나 수행으로 최소한 수다원 과/도 경지에 오른 것 같다. 실참을 안해 보면 boring하지만, 실참 경험이 조금이라도 있다면 보배같은 책.

법화선인 ㅣ 2018-06-14 l 공감(0) ㅣ 댓글(0)







소승불교의 선수행방식을 경험 기술한 책...간접적이나마 선과 지혜 명상을 공부하고 싶은 분 보세요.

그런데 별로 감동은 없음. 자기가 경험했어니 진실로 좋다 이 논리뿐...

팔루스의 기표 ㅣ 2018-01-10 l 공감(11) ㅣ 댓글(0)







정말 도움이 많이 되었습니다. 수행에 일대 전환점을 마련해준 책입니다.

mugbaba ㅣ 2017-10-25 l 공감(1) ㅣ 댓글(0)







정신과 의사인 저자의 실제 수행과정이 담겨있어더욱 친근하게 다가온 명상실용서입니다. 그의 체험을 따라가다보면 나 또한 깨달음의 경지에 다다를 수 있지 않을까 원을 세우게 해주는 책입니다. 수행을 통해 삶을 변화시키고자 하는 이들에게 좋은 이정표가 되어줄 거라 확신합니다

스콜 ㅣ 2016-02-16 l 공감(1) ㅣ 댓글(0)







전현수 박사님 강의 예전에 tv로 보고 좋은 말씀에 관련도서들을 찾아본 적이 있었지요.

이렇게 좋은 책으로 다시 뵙게되니 반갑고 2016년 새해, 새로운 마음으로 시작하는데 도움이 될 것 같습니다.

베르길리우스 ㅣ 2015-12-16 l 공감(2) ㅣ 댓글(0)



--------------------------





총 : 1편









정신과 의사의 체험으로 보는 사마타와 위빠사나 연금술사 ㅣ 2015-11-23 ㅣ 공감(5) ㅣ 댓글 (0)





살면서 '마음공부'라는 것을 하게 된 세월이 그래도 강산이 한번은 변한다는 10여 년이 되었는데, 전현수 선생님의 함자를 알게 된 건 인터넷 카페, 명상힐링 아쉬람에 실린 이 책에 대한 무료 증정 글을 통해서였습니다. 책 소개 글을 읽으며 가슴이 쿵쿵 뛰어 그때부터 알라딘에서 이 분이 쓰신 책을 검색해 보았구요.







그 가운데 <정신과 의사가 붓다에게 배운 마음치료 이야기>, <울고 싶을 때 울어라>를 바로 구해 먼저 읽었습니다. 그리고 유투브를 검색해 올려진 동영상을 거의 다 보았구요.



예전에 BTN 방송에서 오랜 기간에 걸쳐 말씀 자리를 마련한 영상이 있어 많은 도움 받았습니다.



전현수선생님은 불교계 뿐만 아니라 마음 공부 영역에서는 아주 유명한 분이시더군요.



때 맞추어 직지사 백련암에서 위빠싸나 수행을 하시는 혜송 스님을 뵙고 와서는 바로 이 책을 청하였고, 고맙게도 저에게 기회를 주시어 책을 받아 읽기 시작했습니다.







위빠사나 명상은 어찌어찌하여 알게 되었고 구체적인 것은 김열권 법사님의 <보면 사라진다>, <위빠사나 1, 2>편의 도움을 많이 받았습니다. 그리고 2012년도에 상주 푸른누리 공동체를 맡고 이끌어주시는 최한실 선생님을 뵙게 되어 위빠사나와 좀 더 연결된 인연도 있었지만, 그 이상의 진전 없이 그 자리를 맴맴 돌았던 것 같습니다.



그러다 만난 전현수선생님의 <사마타와 위빠사나> .







전현수선생님께서 미얀마에서 수행하신 파욱 전통의 사마타와 위빠사나 수행기를 주로 설하신 내용으로 구성되어 있습니다.



책의 구성과 내용은 다음 글을 참고 하시면 될 것 같구요,



http://cafe.naver.com/occultmulder/41096







이 책은 본격적인 내용 서술에 앞서, 인간의 존재에 대한 근본적인 고찰이 적혀 있어 책을 읽기가 펀안했습니다. 그동안 공부한 내용을 다시 정리, 점검할 수도 있었구요.



본문의 내용으로 들어가서는 제게는 낯선 용어들과 어렵게 느껴지는 부분이 있어 책이 잘 안 읽혀지는 부분도 조금 있었습니다. 몇 번을 다시 읽어 보아도 잘 모르겠는 부분은 그냥 지나쳤지만, 책 구절과 행간에서 제게 오는 부분은 그대로 품을 수 있었습니다.



특히 각 장이 끝날 때 정리해 둔 글들은 내용은 그리 길지 않았지만 아주 좋았구요.







사마타와 위빠사나.



어느 한 수행의 방편만을 좋다고 단정지을 수는 없고 꼭 필요한 것임을 이 책을 통해 다시 한번 확인했지만, 이 책을 읽으면서 위빠사나 수행을 책을 통해 하려고 했던 생각에서 벗어나 실제 수련으로 참여해 배워 봐야겠다는 마음이 들었습니다.



위빠사나 수행을 통해 모든 것은 조건에 따라 변한다는 것을 알고, 괴로움에서 벗어나며 살아가는 데 도움을 받을 수 있도록 실제 수행을 배울 수 있는 마음을 일어나게 해 준 고마운 책.







........



위빠사나 수행을 통해 몸과 마음의 속성을 잘 알면 그에 맞게 몸과 마음을 대한다. 몸이 계속 바뀌고 내 말을 듣지 않고 괴로움이 불가피하다고 알면 몸의 괴로움에 크게 동요되지 않는다. 몸이 괴롭다고 마음까지 괴로움에 빠지지 않는다. 마음도 마찬가지다. 마음은 통제할 수 없다. 괴로울 만한 상황이 되면 괴로울 수 밖에 없다.그럴 때, 그것을 못 받아들이고 일을 벌여 더한 괴로움을 자초하는 대신, 그러한 줄 알고 받아들여야 한다. 몸이 아플 때 마음이 안 아파지도록 하고, 마음이 아플 때 마음이 더 아프지 않도록 하는 것이 중요하다. 자칫하면 벌어질 악순환을 막아야 한다.



.... <사마타와 위빠사나> 중에서, 305p.







이젠 머리에서 가슴으로, 아니 온 몸에서,



아는 것을 그대로살자(생각이 아니라).



그냥 하자~ (제가 제게 해주는 말입니다.)









위빠사나 수행을 통해 몸과 마음의 속성을 잘 알면 그에 맞게 몸과 마음을 대한다. 몸이 계속 바뀌고 내 말을 듣지 않고 괴로움이 불가피하다고 알면 몸의 괴로움에 크게 동요되지 않는다. 몸이 괴롭다고 마음까지 괴로움에 빠지지 않는다. 마음도 마찬가지다. 마음은 통제할 수 없다. 괴로울 만한 상황이 되면 괴로울 수 밖에 없다.그럴 때, 그것을 못 받아들이고 일을 벌여 더한 괴로움을 자초하는 대신, 그러한 줄 알고 받아들여야 한다. 몸이 아플 때 마음이 안 아파지도록 하고, 마음이 아플 때 마음이 더 아프지 않도록 하는 것이 중요하다. 자칫하면 벌어질 악순환을 막아야 한다.


2018/09/29

1510 Critical Review of Mindful Nation UK

Critical Review of Mindful Nation UK
Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 68(1), 
pp.133-136, 2016, 
 ID: 1123926 DOI:10.1080/13636820.2015.1123926



Mindful Nation UK – Report by the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG) 82pp., October 2015 – available free online at http://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org.uk/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Professor Terry Hyland – Education & Psychology, University of Bolton, UK – hylandterry@ymail.com /terry.hyland@mindfulness.ie



The Report was commissioned in 2014 as a result of the growing interest in mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in an expanding range of domains including health and care services, psychology, psychotherapy, leadership and management, work in prisons, workplace training, the military, and education at all levels. Members of the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG) – some of whom had experienced mindfulness practice for themselves – intended the project to achieve three main aims:



• review the scientific evidence and current best practice in mindfulness training

develop policy recommendations for government, based on these findings

• provide a forum for discussion in Parliament for the role of mindfulness and its implementation in public policy



Recommendations – all generally favourable to mindfulness practices – are made for the introduction of MBIs in four key areas: health, education, the workplace and the criminal justice system (8).



This remarkable interest in practices rooted in Buddhist contemplative traditions by Members of the British Parliament – especially in a period of economic austerity and cutbacks in public services – stems directly from the ‘mindfulness revolution’ (Boyce 2011) which has swept virus-like through academia, public life and popular culture over the last decade or so. Mindfulness is a now a meme, a product, a fashionable spiritual commodity with enormous market potential and – in its populist forms – has been transmuted into an all-pervasive ‘McMindfulness’ phenomenon. As Purser and Loy (2013) argue:

While a stripped-down, secularized technique -- what some critics are now calling "McMindfulness" -- may make it more palatable to the corporate world, decontextualizing mindfulness from its original liberative and transformative purpose, as well as its foundation in social ethics, amounts to a Faustian bargain. Rather than applying mindfulness as a means to awaken individuals and organizations from the unwholesome roots of greed, ill will and delusion, it is usually being refashioned into a banal, therapeutic, self-help technique that can actually reinforce those roots (1).

The Foreward to the MAPPG Report (10) was written by Jon Kabat Zinn who – in establishing his mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programme at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979 – is almost single-handedly responsible for the establishment of the current boom industry in mindfulness (Hyland 2015a). In the academic sphere, mindfulness has been taken up most energetically by psychologists, psychotherapists and educators, and there has been an exponential growth of publications measuring the impact of MBSR and related mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programmes on anxiety, depression and chronic pain sufferers, on addictions of various kinds, and to enhance mind/body well-being generally. Since his original MBSR programme
has played such a large part in generating much of this research activity, Kabat-Zinn’s criticisms of contemporary developments are understandably nuanced.
Acknowledging the ‘challenging circumstances relating to the major cultural and epistemological shifts’ as Buddhist meditation was introduced into clinical and psychological settings, Williams & Kabat-Zinn (2013) observe that:

Buddhist scholars, in particular, may feel that the essential meaning of mindfulness may have been exploited, or distorted, or abstracted from its essential ecological niche in ways that may threaten its deep meaning, its integrity, and its potential value (11).



Other commentators have been more forthright in their reaction to the growth of scales for measuring mindfulness. Grossman (2011), in particular, has been forceful in his criticisms of mindfulness measurement techniques, particularly those relying upon self-reports by MBI course participants. The key weaknesses are that they de-contextualise mindfulness from its ethical and attitudinal foundations, measure only specific aspects of mindfulness such as the capacity to stay in the present moment, attention span or transitory emotional state and, in general terms, present a false and adulterated perspective on what mindfulness really is. The proliferation of mindfulness measuring techniques which has accompanied the exponential growth of programmes has exacerbated this denaturing of the original conception and it is now no longer clear precisely what is being measured.

In a recent article in The Guardian designed to accompany the publication of the MAPPG Report, Kabat-Zinn (2015) re-iterated his definition of mindfulness as awareness of the present moment with curiosity and kindness, and warned against ‘opportunistic elements’ for whom ‘mindfulness has become a business that can only disappoint the vulnerable consumers who look to it as a panacea’ (1). The ‘opportunistic elements’ warned against by Kabat-Zinn have have now managed to mutate mindfulness into a commodified consumerist product used to sell everything from colouring books and musical relaxation CDs to “apps” for mindful gardening, cooking and driving. Such commercial activity, arguably, results in the misuse of mindfulness, whereas the inclusion of mindfulness in US army training regimes and by Google in staff development programmes (Stone 2014) clearly raises issues about the outright abuse of MBIs since foundational mindfulness values such as right livelihood, loving-kindness, compassion and non-materialism are self-evidently and fundamentally at odds with aspects of the core business of corporations and the military.



The neuroscientific and clinical evidence for the effectiveness of MBIs is, as the MAPPG Report outlines, robust, and this may justify the recommendations (9) for applications in the criminal justice system (randomised trials with offender populations), and the National Health Service (expansion of MBCT access for those with recurrent depression), but the extension of MBIs into education and the workplace is more problematic. Recommendations are made for the establishment of pilot schools to pioneer mindfulness teaching, and there are proposals for greater collaboration between the Department for Education and health providers alongside suggestions for the introduction of online training programmes for teachers (34). In relation to the workplace, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is asked to ‘demonstrate leadership in working with employers to promote the use of mindfulness’, and mindfulness programmes for public sector staff are recommended in order to ‘combat stress and improve organisational effectiveness’ (46).



Applications in the health service and with offenders are essentially remedial, thus directly connecting them with foundational mindfulness principles concerned with relieving suffering. In education and work on the other hand, there has been a tendency for this core transformational function to be co-opted in order to achieve specific operational objectives, and such pragmatic purposes have obscured the links with the foundational moral principles. In education, such practical aims have included enhanced self-esteem/control and improved focus/attention span and, in the workplace, reduction of employee stress, lower rates of absenteeism and enhanced communication skills (Hyland 2015b). All this seems quite some way from the ethical values which Kabat-Zinn and mainstream mindfulness practitioners would ideally wish to advocate.



Harvey (2014) has described in graphic detail how the voracious appetite of neo-liberal capitalism has come to devour all aspects of public and private spheres bringing about the total commodification of everyday life. The scramble by large corporations to jump on the mindfulness bandwagon has direct parallels with the expropriation of the Protestant Ethic to serve capitalist interests during the Industrial Revolution. On the current model, the capitalisation of mindfulness has produced an ideal consumer product with a handy dual purpose which, on the one hand, promises to alleviate stress in employees – often in organisations whose ruthless and draconian working conditions have caused such stress in the first place (see Purser & Ng 2015) – and, on the other, a commodity with infinite sales potential in a spiritually impoverished culture shot through with attention deficit disorder and late-capitalist angst.

It would be churlish, indeed, to discourage potential participants from gaining any benefits they can from the mindfulness sessions offered in schools and workplaces. The examples of MBIs at work cited in the MAPPG Report – such as the Finance Innovation Lab and Transport for London – note improvements in team working and the reduction of employee stress and absenteeism (44). However, all this is quite remote from the cultivation of the values and dispositions which form the heart of mindfulness practice. All those concerned with applying mindfulness in the workplace would do well to note Kabat-Zinn’s (2015) warning that ‘it can never be a quick fix’, and that there are grave dangers in ignoring ‘the ethical foundations of the meditative practices and traditions from which mindfulness has emerged’ (ibid).

**********************************************************************************************



References

Boyce, B.(ed)(2011). The Mindfulness Revolution. Boston, MA, Shambhala Publications

Grossman, P. (2011). Defining mindfulness by how poorly I think I pay attention during everyday awareness and other intractable problems for psychology’s (re)invention of mindfulness: Comment on Brown et al. (2011). Psychological Assessment, 23, 1034 –1040

.

Harvey, D. (2014). Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. London, Profile Books

Hyland, T. (2015a). On the Contemporary Applications of Mindfulness: Some Implications for Education; Journal of Philosophy of Education, 49(2),170-186

Hyland, T. (2015b). McMindfulness in the Workplace: Vocational Learning and the Commodification of the Present Moment; Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 67 (2), 219–234 


Kabat-Zinn, J.(2015). Mindfulness has huge health potential – but McMindfulness is no panacea; The Guardian, 20.10.15; http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/20/mindfulness-mental-health-potential-benefits-uk , accessed 3.11.15

Purser, R. & Loy, D. (2013). Beyond McMindfulness; Huffington Post, 1/7/13, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-purser/beyond-mcmindfulness_b_3519289.html; accessed 14/7/15 


Purser, R. & Ng, E. (2015). Corporate Mindfulness is Bullsh*t: Zen or No Zen, You’re Working Harder and Being Paid Less. Salon, 25.9.15. 


Stone, M. (2014). Abusing the Buddha: How the U.S. Army and Google co-opt mindfulness. Salon, 17.3.14

Williams, J.M.G. & Kabat-Zinn, J. (eds)(2013). Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins and Applications. Abingdon, Routledge










.

1809 Mindfulness and “Educational New Ageism” - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education

Mindfulness and “Educational New Ageism” - Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education

Marina Schwimmer and Kevin McDonough

Subject: Educational Politics and Policy, Educational Purposes and Ideals, Educational Theories and Philosophies, Education and Society
Online Publication Date: Sep 2018DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.175

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In This Article

Introduction

Mindfulness-Based Intervention in Educational Settings

Contemporary Educational Research on Mindfulness

Mindfulness as a New Age Practice

New Ageism in Contemporary Educational Settings

The Need for Critical Scrutiny of Mindfulness Education

Therapeutic and Entrepreneurial Dimensions of MBIs

The Undertheorized Political Dimension of MBIs

Conclusion

Further Reading

References



-----------

Summary and Keywords

Mindfulness meditation is a growing social phenomenon in Western countries and is now also becoming a common part of life in public schools. The concept of mindfulness originated in Buddhist thinking and meditation practices over 2,500 years ago. Its original purpose was mainly to alleviate people’s suffering by providing a path to inner wisdom and vitality, which implied the development of compassion, patience, and forgiveness, as well as other values conducive to inner peace. In the 1970s, this practice was popularized in the West as it was adapted to and integrated with secular intervention programs aimed at reducing stress and dealing with chronic pain.

Packages promoting mindfulness practices are disseminated commercially, backed by research in neuroscience and developmental psychology, for use in schools through programs like MindUp and Mindful Schools. In recent years, there has been a marked uptick of interest from educational researchers in mindfulness education. Several distinct research orientations or approaches can be discerned—

  • mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), an instrumental approach that views mindfulness practices in clinical or therapeutic terms; 
  • a spiritualist approach, which emphasizes the rootedness of MBIs in ancient religious traditions and focuses on the benefits of mindfulness practices for individual spiritual growth; and 
  • a political approach, which highlights the potential benefits of MBIs to develop students’ capacities for democratic deliberation and participation.


Contemporary mindfulness education in schools also sometimes reflects the cultural influence of New Age values, an orientation distinct from the instrumental, spiritualist, and political approaches, and whose impact may raise troubling questions about the purported educational benefits of MBIs. Accordingly, the alliance between New Age values, neoliberal economic and cultural values, and mindfulness practices in contemporary democratic societies and schools should be given due consideration in assessing the relative educational costs and benefits of MBIs. In particular, cultural and educational values at the intersection of neoliberal values entrepreneurialism and New Age values of personal and spiritual growth may have corrosive rather than benevolent effects on the pursuit of democratic values in schools.



Keywords: mindfulness, meditation, neoliberalism, democratic education, mindfulness-based intervention (MBI), New Age

Marina Schwimmer
Universite du Quebec a Montreal

Kevin McDonough
McGill University

2018/09/25

Requiem of the Human Soul - by Jeremy R Lent.



Requiem of the Human Soul - by Jeremy R Lent. 


Eusebio Franklin, a school teacher from a small community, is faced with the most terrifying dilemma imaginable: should he carry out an act of mass terrorism in order to save the human race?



Eusebio has been chosen to defend our human race in a special session of the United Nations. It's the late 22nd century, and most people are genetically enhanced; Eusebio is among the minority that remain unimproved, known as Primals, consisting mostly of the impoverished global underclass. The UN is on the verge of implementing a "Proposed Extinction of the Primal Species" and Eusebio's been picked to represent his race in a last ditch legal effort to save the Primals from extinction.



It's a hearing like no other. Our human race is on trial. Our own sordid history––the devastation we've caused to indigenous cultures around the world, the destruction of our environment and of other species––becomes evidence in the case against our continued existence.



But as the hearing progresses, Eusebio is faced with a terrible decision. He's secretly visited by Yusef who represents the Rejectionists––a renegade group of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus refusing to accept the d-humans' genetic optimization because it prevents them from knowing God. Yusef urges Eusebio to take the only meaningful action to save the human race from extinction: detonate a nuclear bomb hidden in the UN building in New York where the session is taking place.



As the story develops to its dramatic climax, Eusebio finds himself increasingly alienated from the d-human world, while Yusef's plot places him in an agonizing moral dilemma: whether to engage in an act of nuclear terrorism to preserve the human race.

In this novel, the reader faces challenging questions about spirituality, history and global politics: Could our race "evolve" itself to a higher plane? At what cost and benefit? If we lost what is now the "human race" as a result, would that be so bad, given our sordid and shameful history? On the other hand, is there something special, our soul, worth keeping at any price? Ultimately, the novel forces the reader to grapple with the fundamental question: what does it mean to be human?
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Editorial Reviews

Review


Five Stars (out of Five)

It is one of the great travesties of the human experience that violence is often perpetrated by those claiming to follow Jesus, Mohammed, and other spiritual leaders who advocated peace. Therefore, the premise of this novel, a genetic manipulation that deselects the twin capacities for spiritual belief and fanatical intolerance (aggression) in new humans, might seem like a wonderful idea. Except that in the process, these designer Humans may be losing their souls.

In the d-Human world of genetic pre-selection, the wealthy also have the most happiness, good looks, height, compassion, or whatever characteristic their parents paid for.

Eusebio Franklin, a history teacher in remote Tucker's Corners who specializes in Native Americana, is forced to make an impassioned defense for the importance of spiritual belief and the future of the remaining three billion of "his" race–a definition that includes any non-genetically altered human. In actual human history, Eusebius was a historian and chronicler of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christ was allegedly buried.

Counsel Naomi Aramovich tells Eusebio that the unaltered "Primals," "are the global underclass...who could never come close to affording even the most basic genetic enhancement. For the most part, they're illiterate, starving, and diseased."

As a member of a tech-avoidant, traditional Humanist community, Eusebio would seem to oppose everything the d-Humans stand for. But should he? What if every d-Human you saw seemed happy, healthy, engaged and purposeful? What if the d-Humans showed you that the vast majority of your fellow "Primals" lived in dire conditions?

Author Jeremy Lent holds a master's degree in English literature from Emmanuel College in Cambridge, England. His first novel flows quickly but smoothly, pulling the reader into Eusebio's ethical struggles and his arguments about our direct ancestors' destruction of cultures, indigenous animals, and entire environments.

While Eusebio grapples with questions about the motives of the lawyers trying his case at the United Nations hearing and the trustworthiness of the mysterious Yusef, who claims to be a freedom fighter for the unaltered minority, readers will pause to consider an even larger question: How responsible are we for the actions of our ancestors? For Eusebio, the ultimate question is: Does humanity deserve another chance?

Requiem for the Human Soul is a gripping read that will keep readers up at night, slurping up the last few pages like a specialty juice from the future world's neighborhood Betelbar.--Holly Chase Williams, ForeWord Clarion Reviews



The fate of mankind depends on a mere schoolteacher who must argue for his race's survival despite opposition from genetically "superior" humans.

150 years from now, Eusebio Franklin, a genetically unmodified "Primitive," faces the unfamiliar world of genetically modified "d-humans." The d-humans wish to consign Primitives to reserves and eventual extinction, but they pick Eusebio to speak on behalf of the primitives to justify their existence. A believer in religion, romance, wonder and other impulses that the d-humans lack, Eusebio eagerly seizes the chance to plead the case. He struggles to make the d-humans understand the ineffable mysteries of the human soul, but this is something that genetic engineering has, in a neat explanation of pseudo-science just detailed enough to be believable, legislated out of existence. Though ostensibly an exemplar of the glorious, emotional, wonderful messiness that humanity has to offer, Eusebio's moral indignation and sensitively outraged heart make him a flat protagonist, especially against the equally cardboard d-humans, who are superficially perfect but morally bankrupt villains. There's yet another layer in this tale of apocalyptic philosophy. During a break in the hearing, Eusebio is tempted by an anti-d-human freedom fighter, Yusef. He begins to take Yusef's proposal–to resist extinction by setting off a bomb in New York City as an act of defiance–seriously. At the same time, Eusebio's innately human faith and love, exemplified in his soul mate-like relationship with his tragically dead wife, makes him think that perhaps he could turn the tables on the d-humans and save humans without violence. Because Eusebio embodies a rather simple belief in human goodness and progressivism, all narrative indicators suggest that he will triumph over the evil d-humans. But Lent is too cynical for that. Note that the title refers to an inherently funereal requiem. Despite some character flaws, Lent writes engagingly, moving the story along with the dramatic swiftness and clarity of a movie script.

A philosophical suspense story that exhibits quick pacing, moral nuances and unexpected twists.--Kirkus Discoveries



In this ambitious and thought-provoking novel, Jeremy Lent's meticulously imagined future society is used as a means to take us to the very heart of the human condition. Intercut with gripping asides about how his imagined future world came to be, Lent's story focuses on Eusebio, his humane, everyman narrator, who is faced with a terrible decision.

There are very few science fiction works out there which speak to both the head and the heart, but Lent has produced one, a book which stimulates both intellectually and emotionally. This is a genuinely great read, and a profound one, written with intense and audacious ambition, but without ever losing the human element. Read it – you'll be glad you did.--Ed Lark, author of Grief (nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Book of the Year, 2005)

From the Author
Requiem of the Human Soul is my first novel. I wanted to write about where I saw our world going, and what it means for our human soul. Not the Judaeo-Christian immortal soul, but the kind we mean when we say: "That's got soul, man." I wanted to explore how genetic engineering may put the final nail in the coffin that Western civilization's been building around our soul for the past 500 years.

I tried to make the story believable - not some angst-ridden dystopia, but a realistic view of what the future may hold for our species.

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File Size: 1667 KB
Print Length: 354 pages
Publisher: Jeremy Lent; 1 edition (December 15, 2016)
Publication Date: December 15, 2016





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Biography
More info at: www.jeremylent.com

Jeremy Lent is an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview, both scientifically rigorous and intrinsically meaningful, that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the earth.

Born in London, England, Lent received a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He pursued a career in business, eventually founding an internet startup and taking it public.

Beginning around 2005, Lent began an inquiry into the various constructions of meaning formed by cultures around the world and throughout history. His award-winning novel, Requiem of the Human Soul, was published in 2009. His most recent work, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, traces the deep historical foundations of our modern worldview.

Lent is currently working on his next book provisionally entitled The Web of Meaning: An Integration of Modern Science with Traditional Wisdom, which combines findings in cognitive science, systems theory, and traditional Chinese and Buddhist thought, offering a framework that integrates both science and meaning in a coherent whole.

​He holds regular community workshops to explore these topics through contemplative and embodied practices in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Michael B

5.0 out of 5 starsWrite more!March 7, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Many of my recent ventures into unknown literary territory have ended in disappointment, so it was with a bit of skepticism that I purchased Requiem for the Human Soul. By the time I had read through the first chapter of the novel, that skepticism had completely evaporated. Lent's writing is clear, thorough, concise, and thought-provoking. He is not at all afraid to tackle weighty philosophical issues such as the nature of the soul, the definition of humanity, the emergence of consciousness as a neural phenomenon, and whether it is morally justifiable to kill innocent people to save others. Lent uses the debate as an opportunity to weave a few of his own original ideas in as well - it is clear that he has given ideas such as the tyranny of the prefrontal cortex and the "CONDUCTER" more than a little thought - and yet this is so well executed that it becomes a credible part of the backstory.

Yet this is not some abstract philosophical descant. It is as emotionally involving as it is intellectual. The moral dilemma of the protagonist becomes our own: what would *we* do in his shoes? And just as we think we've found the answer, the end of the novel takes a surprise turn.

If you haven't read this novel, you don't know what you're missing. I'm eagerly looking forward to more by Jeremy Lent.

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James E. Hamilton

5.0 out of 5 starsFive StarsAugust 30, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great science fiction and based in the genetic science as we know it with today's research.

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heartwing

5.0 out of 5 starsbrilliant!July 29, 2011
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

you know a novel has captured you when you finish it, and immediately turn back to the first page, to begin reading again....jeremy's novel is well-written, with a fast-paced, suspenseful story, and engaging characters. if you enjoy fantasy or science fiction, and are interested in the human condition, and our planet's future, READ REQUIEM!

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Pipistrel

3.0 out of 5 starsA Platonic FantasyJuly 24, 2017
Format: Paperback

The year is in the 2180s, and the scene is New York, in which the Atlantic laps around the bases of the skyscrapers. A genetically unmodified human or 'primal' (in contemptuous slang, a 'chimp'), Eusebio Franklin is summoned to represent his species to a UN commission considering PEPS - the Proposed Extinction of the Primal Species. The 7 billion GM humans, or d-humans, are considering the gradual elimination of the 3 billion Primals by administration of 'isotope 909' to limit women to a single pregnancy. Eusebio is a history teacher, member of the Humanist movement, founded by Julius Schumacher, a 21st century neurologist who detected the human soul as 'smudges' on brain-scans of humans and other animal species, but not in d-humans. Eusebio is interrogated by the loathsome Counsel Harry Shields, Counsel for PEPS, and defended by the sympathetic d-human, Counsel Naomi Aramovich, who is a Primal Rights activist.
Eusebio is visited in his hotel room by a holographic projection of Yusef, a Middle Eastern representative of the Rejectionists - those who refuse GALT, the Glogal Aggression Limitation Treaty. Yusef explains that they hide out in the 'Believers Belt', the Muslim world, where they have access to Middle Eastern wealth. He tells of a secret plan to exterminate Believers with isotope 919 which sterilizes women He urges Eusebio not to take part further in the PEPS enquiry. Next morning Eusebio lies about this visit but is caught out by the thought-reader. The next night Yusef teaches him a technique to avoid detection, which works.
There is a great deal of fictitious technology, including thought-reading head-sets, virtual reality visits to actual places on the other side of the world, and projection of holographic images over similar distances. Much of this strains credulity, and 'isotopes 909 and 919' suggest lack of scientific culture. At the same time there seems to be a great deal of intercontinental travel, suggesting no shortage of material resources.
Succeeding PEPS sessions take Eusebio on virtual reality visits to sites in an Amerindian reserve, in Bengal and in Pakistan and to his daughter in Wales. These persuade him of the inhumanity of the d-humans and prepare him to agree to Yusef's plan to blow up New York in the name of jihad with a 100-kiloton nuclear bomb, for which the trigger is smuggled to him. He sets out to execute this plan, but his fingers refuse to obey him, proving his true humanity. This ends the PEPS sessions. Naomi Aronovich explains that PEPS will happen anyway; the real object was to record Eusebio's soul. She explains that there are two kinds of soul, the Earthly and the Infinite. Humans have both, but d-humans have only the latter.
Eusebio is permitted to retire in New York. A few months later he receives a request for the recordings of his PEPS sessions to be sold as a virtual reality recording. He agrees for the sake of the huge royalties, which he donates to the support of Primal reserves. His soul is immortalised and will survive the inevitable extinction of the Primal species. This is a strangely Platonic ending for a work by the author of The Patterning Instinct. It helps to explain why the hero is named after Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, historian of the Church, suspected of Arianism, leading participant in the First Council of Nicaea. It also gives a disagreeable taste to the portrayal of Muslims as the last to relinquish war.
The novel is well written, but the narrative is slowed down by chapters representing articles covering events and people between the present and the 2180s. My main problem is with the philosophical confusion and the scientific naivety.
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April M. Hanson

5.0 out of 5 starsWill Make You ThinkMarch 21, 2010
Format: Paperback

Requiem: a musical composition in honor of the dead.

It's late in the 22nd century and humans, as we know them today, have been slowly replaced by genetically enhanced d-humans. Those who never had any enhancements are called Primals and are considered inferior to the d-humans. They live in reservation like communities all over the world and are virtually cut off from the technological advancements enjoyed by the enhanced species. The UN has introduced a "Proposed Extinction of the Primal Species" and Eusebio Franklin has been enlisted to testify on behalf of all Primals in a last ditch effort to prevent the humane genocide. Soon Eusebio is approached by the leader of the Rejectionists, a group that isn't afraid to take violent action to protect the Primal species. He is presented with a choice, detonate a nuclear device that will kill millions, including him, or do nothing and watch the beginning of the end for his Primal brethren.

"Requiem Of The Human Soul" by Jeremy Lent is a book that will make you think. It will also make you feel such emotions as anger, frustration, and despair. Honestly, there is very little that is happy about this book and that is okay as the message is an important one. Where are we going as a society and what happens when we get there? Have we really learned anything from the past? Mr. Lent addresses these questions and so much more but, in the end, doesn't leave us with much hope. There is no happy ending here and I finished the book feeling let down. Despite this, it is a well-written and very profound story that should be looked at as a cautionary tale; a look at a future that I hope will never come about.
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Requiem for the Human Soul

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Jeremy Lent (Goodreads Author)
3.9 · Rating details · 21 Ratings · 6 Reviews

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Jun 30, 2010Lisa rated it it was amazing
This book started a little on the slow side, but got going & just ran straight up to the end.

Essentially, we have been tinkering with our genetic make-up to make us "better" so long that we have created a new race of humans (d-humans)and they are the majority on the planted now & we (Primals & not genetically enhanced) are slated for a "humane" extinction. But, before the d-humans go forth with the plan, they are holding hearings on the subject to discuss & justify their decision. To help with the "case", they pick a learned primal history teacher, Eusebio, to be the "voice" of the Primal humans. Through sides & flashbacks, we get his story. He is basically put on trial for all the atrocities that humans have made throughout history, extinction of species, destroying of the planet, etc, etc. Eusebio is also being pulled by the Rejectionists to their side in the fight against the extinction to help them continue their fight against the d-humans.

Many twists & turns are taken on the way to the conclusion of the story, with an ending that is very unexpected. When one watches the current news after reading this book, you can see the whole concept becoming clearer as we rush to become scientifically able to manipulate our genetic codes & get the desired outcomes of "perfection". 





Aug 09, 2010Kelly Harmon rated it it was amazing
Shelves: highly-recommended
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Mar 21, 2010April rated it really liked it
Requiem: a musical composition in honor of the dead.

It's late in the 22nd century and humans, as we know them today, have been slowly replaced by genetically enhanced d-humans. Those who never had any enhancements are called Primals and are considered inferior to the d-humans. They live in reservation like communities all over the world and are virtually cut off from the technological advancements enjoyed by the enhanced species. The UN has introduced a "Proposed Extinction of the Primal Species" and Eusebio Franklin has been enlisted to testify on behalf of all Primals in a last ditch effort to prevent the humane genocide. Soon Eusebio is approached by the leader of the Rejectionists, a group that isn't afraid to take violent action to protect the Primal species. He is presented with a choice, detonate a nuclear device that will kill millions, including him, or do nothing and watch the beginning of the end for his Primal brethren.

"Requiem Of The Human Soul" by Jeremy Lent is a book that will make you think. It will also make you feel such emotions as anger, frustration, and despair. Honestly, there is very little that is happy about this book and that is okay as the message is an important one. Where are we going as a society and what happens when we get there? Have we really learned anything from the past? Mr. Lent addresses these questions and so much more but, in the end, doesn't leave us with much hope. There is no happy ending here and I finished the book feeling let down. Despite this, it is a well-written and very profound story that should be looked at as a cautionary tale; a look at a future that I hope will never come about. (less)
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Oct 18, 2013Karen Kobie rated it it was amazing
Requiem for the Human Soul is an excellent, thought-provoking read. Lent immediately engages the reader into a fictional framework which is as brilliantly plotted as the most addictive thriller. He asks hard questions concerning the implications for a near future when we will be able to create designer humans. Truth is it's impossible to read this novel without asking those hard questions of ourselves. What makes us think we are wise enough to create designer humans? How can we know that our creations will not have insurmountable flaws, even if of a slightly different hue from our own? Is it ever permissible to commit a great wrong if doing so will prevent an even greater wrong?

If you do decide to read it, I hope you'll find it to be as interesting and compulsively engaging as I did. (less)
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Dec 09, 2009Brittany rated it it was amazing
Simply amazing. Well-written, well-conceived and well-developed.

Lent shows the reader a frightening dystopic future that seems all too real. What would "genetic optimization" do to us? Could it possibly create a new line of hominids? Can past human atrocities truly be put on trial and justify mass genocide?

Fantastic novel!

FYI: This book was hard to get a hold of! Since no libraries in the area had a copy, I purchased it through Amazon. It certainly is a novel worth having in your personal collection. (less)
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The Patterning Instinct - BR: A new history of cultural big ideas looks to the East for solace | New Scientist

A new history of cultural big ideas looks to the East for solace | New Scientist


REVIEW

24 May 2017
A new history of cultural big ideas looks to the East for solace

To create a less divisive world, Jeremy Lent's The Patterning Instinct wants to get rid of the Western split between animalistic urges and rational control

The revolution starts here: a Confucian temple in Shanghai

Olivier Aubert/Picturetank

By Pat Kane

AS THE daily turbulence of politics, economics, environmental change and religion rages around us, there is an understandable marketplace for books that look at the bigger picture. Jeremy Lent’s The Patterning Instinct does just that, joining the dots between points in history and culture, identifying echoes and consiliences across the natural and social sciences.


This is more than a scholastic exercise. Our planetary predicament demands the broadest and deepest perspectives, not just to enable masterful armchair contemplation, but also to guide our actions in the middle of what would otherwise be an enervating horror show.

The cover of Lent’s intellectual epic shows a line drawing of networks, the dots ostentatiously joined. No doubt this expresses the author’s fundamentalism, derived from his scientific and religious readings, about the power of connectedness.

But on the way to a somewhat familiar end point, Lent provides a useful and massively referenced road map of the most enduring structures of meaning in human history.

Humanity’s first world-encompassing idea, says Lent, was the hunter-gatherer belief that “everything is connected”. There followed an agricultural era during which humanity lived under the “hierarchy of the gods”. 


He then charts what he calls “the divergence”. Lent’s shorthand for this pattern is “split cosmos, split human”: the assumption that our physical reality, personal or objective, can be controlled by transcendent powers. Whether we call those powers “divine” or “rational” is, to Lent, neither here nor there. The two developed in lockstep: you couldn’t have conceived one without the other.

Articulated first by the philosophers of Ancient Greece, this “Western pattern” of meaning gathered force under the rise of Christianity and the innovations of the Enlightenment and continues to hold sway under today’s scientific industrialism.

“This idea could produce a split humanity, one species enhanced and exploring, the other barely surviving”

Lent traces his splitting thesis all the way to the thrumming fortresses of Silicon Valley. Here, Plato’s fantasy – a rational soul subjecting the animalistic body to its will – is not just a moral compass, it’s become techno-scientific mission.

Are you extending our cognitive abilities by creating devices that mimic and mesh with our thinking? Are you influencing people’s emotions through mood-altering drugs? Are you engineering our bodies to the optimum with gene editing? Then you are in the grip of an ancient idea: that pure rationality stands sovereign over the biological world.

This idea has the potential, already half-realised, Lent says, to produce a split humanity, “one species, genetically and technologically enhanced, exploring entirely new ways of being human; the other species, genetically akin to us, barely surviving within its collapsed infrastructure.”

Similar to Yuval Noah Harari’s recent, and equally expansive, Homo Deus, Lent’s book seeks some perspective on our modern juggernaut of radical innovation and global polarisation. To do so, it reaches towards Asian wisdom traditions – an “Eastern pattern” that Lent calls “the harmonic web of life”.

But while Harari’s no-self Buddhism comes close to exulting in the way humankind will be overtaken by intelligent algorithms, Lent finds a place for connecting, meaning-seeking humans in this complex future.

To carve out this space for ourselves, Lent says we must recast the deep metaphors structuring our attitudes to nature and other humans.

Neo-Confucianism is the candidate that Lent favours to lead this metaphorical revolution. Its core concept is an understanding of the universe as the interrelation of qi (spoken as “chi”) and li. Qi is the raw material of the universe – but liis “the ever-moving, ever-present set of patterns that flow through everything in nature and in all our perceptions of the world, including our consciousness”.

Like his mentor Fritjof Capra, who provides an introduction for the book, Lent seeks corroboration for this spiritual insight in what were once called the “new”, non-deterministic sciences – the study of complex adaptive systems in physics and biology, which find curious analogues in certain branches of mathematics.

Lent shows how the tenets of Neo-Confucian thought are homologous with maths, neuroscience and climatology, particularly when those disciplines identify “a complex of dynamical systems that remain valid across the entire natural world, from systems as vast as global climate to as small as a living cell”.

Like Capra, Lent wants to fuse spiritual tradition and the “new” sciences in service of a less rapacious and divisive world. If we could grasp what Lent calls elsewhere “liology”, we would attribute our ultimate sources of value not to “a transcendent realm”, or to our “moral rationality”, but to “humanity’s intrinsic connection with the natural world”.

There’s an obvious, real-world refutation available, of course. It’s not hard to find a regime that loudly deploys Confucian values in a modern setting. But does China, which recorded its highest ever figures for coal-fired electricity this April, provide the best exemplar? Lent himself delicately “refrains from making direct inferences regarding modern China” in his study of Neo-Confucianism. He should entertain a little more hope. Although China is producing more energy from coal in absolute terms, the percentage of total energy provided by coal is dropping.

Since 2007, Beijing elites have been hyping East Asia as a land mass uniquely placed to bring about an 
“ecological civilisation”, underpinned by the Confucian belief in harmony with nature. Meanwhile the administrations of US president Donald Trump and UK prime minister Theresa May have each rubbished climate change action and research. They have handed China a golden opportunity: to make good on its soft-power rhetoric and create a sustainable model that, sooner or later, the rest of the world will have to emulate.

Lent uses what he calls “cognitive history” and “archaeology of the mind” to show how such massive shifts in underlying world view can happen, and they involve an evolutionary account of the brain. Again like Harari, Lent dates the advent of our capacity for advanced cognition to a point about 70,000 years ago, when our prefrontal cortex began to expand.

Lent describes the “executive function” of the prefrontal cortex well. “It mediates our ability to plan, conceptualise, symbolise, make rules, and impose meaning on things. It controls our physiological drives and turns our basic feelings into complex emotions. It enables us to be aware of ourselves and others as separate beings, and to turn the past and the future into one narrative.” This is the locus of the “patterning instinct”.

In many of the neurology-informed history epics, authors are often studiedly neutral about the raw mental ability of humans to forge new paradigms. Few of them dare to connect our cognitive flexibility to any necessary idea of progress, or human flourishing. This is perhaps understandable given what’s involved is often a survey of historical carnage. Lent himself is unsparing in his descriptions of the cruelty and brutality meted out by righteous monotheists and dualists, their meaning-patterns justifying colonialism and empire.

“Cultures shape values, and those values shape history. Our values will shape our future”

Given all this, you have to admire the way Lent sticks his neck out on behalf of Neo-Confucianism. He goes so far as to propose that its concept of “heart-mind”, which seeks to integrate emotion and reason, is analogous to the prefrontal cortex when it functions at its best. And he has a point, citing research that shows that a healthy prefrontal cortex is not about “repressing or overriding emotional states”, but about “integrating them into appropriate decisions and actions… our cognition takes place not in the brain but in the felt sensation of the entire body.”

The Patterning Instinct, oblivious to the science-deniers currently occupying high executive office, ends with a statement of simple confidence: “Cultures shape values, and those values shape history. By the same token, our values will shape our future.” One way to equip yourself for this heroic task will be to read this enormous, learned, yet garrulous and helpful book.


The Patterning Instinct: A cultural history of humanity’s search for meaning

Jeremy Lent

Prometheus Books