The limits of meditation

(Nimue)

Despite my longstanding enthusiasm for meditating, I’ve never considered it the magic bullet other people seem convinced it should be. I have considerable rage around the way a rather glib take on ‘mindfulness’ is now offered as a medical solution. I’m sick of seeing it offered as a cure personal suffering at the hands of inhumane systems.

One of the issues is the focus on ‘being in the now’. If the present moment is good, or even merely neutral, then that’s fine. If you are being bombed, are overwhelmed with physical pain, worked to the point of exhaustion, miserable with cold because you can’t afford both heating and eating… being really focused on the present just means doubling down on the misery. I’ve been trying (with varying degrees of success) to talk about this for years.

Now there’s some science, and if you have the time and the inclination, this is a really good read – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hope-can-be-more-powerful-than-mindfulness/

Many years ago, I had an argument with someone who was preaching their version of Zen and being in the moment. They argued with me because I’d written about the importance of hope. They told me that the future isn’t real, hope is an illusion and that I should focus on the present.  I still stand by my belief that hope is incredibly important for survival and for flourishing. Apparently there’s some evidence now to back that up.

Living only in the moment may make sense if you are in a monastery and have dedicated your life to that spiritual path. Taking time to be deliberately mindful clearly does bring a lot of people some everyday benefits, and I’m all in favour of that. If something works for you, go for it. Alongside that we need to be clear that failure to magically transform your life with meditation might have far more to do with your circumstances than not being a ‘good Druid’. There are a lot of problems you can’t meditate your way out of.

Hope enables us to try and change things. If your life is perfectly safe and comfortable, you might not need hope and can indeed bask in the lovely present. For those of us not cocooned in privilege,  our quality of life will likely depend on our ability not only to endure, but to work towards something better. If we can’t imagine something better we’ll not build it. The planet urgently needs us to imagine better and kinder futures, and to hold enough hope to take action.

Getting too focused on the present can lead us into apathy, inaction, complicity with oppression, and despair. Too much acceptance has us going along with dreadful things. It’s neither a peaceful choice nor a spiritual choice for Druids to persuade ourselves that we can’t do anything and we should just live in the moment. Resistance, climate chaos, compassion, and justice demand active responses and you can’t do that if you aren’t willing to be future focused to at least some degree.

Being mindful, present and wholly in the moment can be wonderful, and there’s a time and a place for it. Like everything else, it requires discernment, and a willingness to take responsibility for ourselves.