Media Corner: The Discovery of Mindfulness
Insight Myanmar10 Nov 2020

Media Corner: The Discovery of Mindfulness

“Having already witnessed first-hand the transformation of mindfulness from mysterious curiosity to commercialized buzzword, going back to read about a time when so much was still so unexplored generated a kind of nostalgia in me. Perhaps this is like when Americans pine for the ‘simplicity’ of the 1950s or the ‘freedom’ of the Old West—it says more about the psychology of the one doing the pining or the state of current society than about those actual time periods.”

So writes Carl Stimson after reviewing three books: Journey of Insight Meditation (1978) by Eric Lerner, One Night’s Shelter (1985) by Bhikkhu Yogavacara Rahula aka Scott DuPrez, and The Quiet Mind (1971) by John Coleman. Bringing himself into the study as a fourth character, Carl goes on to tackle wider questions as to what we can learn about the growth and expansion of the vipassana movement from Asia to the West. He covers such themes as an early lack of diversity among Western meditators and teachers, the benefits as well as consequences of greater access to mindfulness teachings, meeting challenges along the spiritual path, and the maturation process of a meditator.

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Episoder(518)

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The Bloodiest Election

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Into The Mystic

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Facing a Fraying World

Facing a Fraying World

Episode #453: Patrick Phongsathorn is a human rights advocate and Fortify Rights advocacy specialist working on Myanmar. Raised near London by a Thai–Irish–South African family, he pairs legal rigor w...

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Fever Pitch

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Episode #452: “We still had a lot of ideals… but we had some illusions, so to speak.” François Nosten has spent decades on the Thai-Myanmar border, where war, disease, and displacement overlap endless...

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