In the Pali Canon, a collection of scriptures from the Theravada Buddhist tradition, meditation is described as a way of purifying the mind. The scripture describes the practice of detaching your mind from unneeded worldly worries as essential as cleaning one’s body and clothes regularly. Even in the days of the scripture’s inception, meditation was seen as something everyone should participate in, not just devoted monks and nuns.
Flash forward to today and the practice of meditation has transcended the Buddhist tradition. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) therapy has established meditation in the Western world as a Band-Aid to all of life’s hardships. MBSR is a meditation therapy practice originally designed in the 1970s by American professor Jon Kabat-Zinn as a way of dealing with stress. Nowadays, meditation is marketed as a catch-all solution, from teens stressed out about homework to stock market brokers looking to get an edge on their competitors. Psychotherapist Miles Neale describes this phenomenon as “McMindfulness.” Neale described the Western mindfulness movement as “a feeding frenzy of spiritual practices that provide immediate nutrition but no long-term sustenance.” In their book, Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion, Jeremy Carrette and Richard King describe new age mindfulness and meditation therapies as “pacifying feelings of anxiety and disquiet at the individual level, rather than seeking to challenge the social, political and economic inequalities that cause such distress.”
This widespread, one size fits all method of mindfulness has spread rapidly over the past couple of decades, thanks in part to the rise of smartphones and social media. There is now a very distinct disconnect between the original ideas behind Buddhist meditative practices and the ideals of our digital age. There are many apps out there that claim to offer ways of clearing one’s mind following Buddhist meditation practices. However, these apps exist on a device and an ecosystem (the internet), that advocates for the exact opposite of these practices.
Many of these apps, such as Headspace, offer guided meditation services through a subscription service, giving their users access to a hefty number of meditation audio files for $17.99 a month or $89.00 a year. The app offers no free services besides a trial period of 14 days access. Without forking over some cash, every form of meditation from ‘the basics’ to ‘mindful eating’ is locked behind this paywall. This method of locking meditation methods behind hefty fees inherently goes against the simple reflection practice of early Buddhism.
In Rebecca Jablonsky’s article, “Meditation Apps and the Promise of Attention by Design,” she writes about how Headspace and other meditation apps often intentionally have the exact opposite effect than the inner reflection that they advertise. These apps very frequently bombard users with notifications, reminding them to log on each day. Instead of combatting the distractions of the world in our pocket computers, these apps lead you to it, with the false promise of increasing one’s mindfulness. This false promise can lead to a belief in users that they are being more mindful just by using the app. “Users interpret their experiences on the apps as positive because of the promissory, self-reinforcing way digitally mediated attention is figured in contrast to digital addiction,” writes Jablonksy. Simply by attracting users to be on their phones, these apps that promise a cure to the stresses around us only lead to more, as Instagram and Gmail notifications constantly interrupt one’s concentration.
While phones and meditation practices oppose each other in many ways, there are avenues to learn about meditation and Buddhist practices online that are much more accessible and less predatory. There are many guided meditation videos available for free on YouTube, as well as articles about different methods and traditional practices, breathing exercises, etc. One app that this reporter recommends is the Plum Village app, which includes a number of guided meditations, seminars and texts, all for free, without annoying notifications. However you choose to do so, it is always nice to be able to take some time out of the day, turn off your phone, breathe, and be mindful.
