In all seriousness, it is a little like that! One thing I found during regular mindfulness practice is that you get to this place of all around contentedness, and you start embracing the oneness of all things and the impermanence of subjectivity, and all of a sudden stuff starts to matter a lot less. And like, that’s great when you’re dealing with a lot of anxiety and depression and stress, since it’s a lot less crushing, but also I found that it also killed some of the drive that led to action, as there was no urgent need to escape all of those feelings. It helped to a certain degree though, since that stuff also got in the way just as or more often than it was motivating.
And in that way, it was also a little alienating from other people, since all of their petty dramas and overblown concerns just felt very petty and overblown, but you could tell that they were truly and deeply invested in them. It was like, do you not realize that none of that (or truly anything) really matters?
So yeah, in some ways I would call deep mindfulness practice a little bit masturbatory (in a mostly good way). But still, very little to do with cum.
Maybe! I don’t think it’s so much about blaming people for their own suffering, but more of a recognition that suffering is just another state of being, and in a larger context that being is a part of everything else that is.
In a broader sense I don’t think that mindfulness practice needs to directly lead to nihilism, but it certainly can without an underpinning of philosophy that can make sense of what’s left after dismissing the subjective as the only truth.
Much like the monk that remains seated while self-immolating, it is possible to remain mindful and even euphoric in even the most extreme forms of suffering, but that said it would be disgusting to try and proffer that example as a way to dismiss the suffering of others in a current state. “hey that guy could do it, so why don’t you just sit and be one and then you won’t have any problems?” Of course that is rediculous. But it is a practice that can lead to reduced suffering, and it is available to everyone. But it’s much like the tech bros that tell people suffering from poverty to “just learn to code”. Like yeah, it’s an option, and a thing that can help some people, but just because it’s a thing that worked for you doesn’t mean it’s going to fix everyone else’s problems, especially not right here in the now when that suffering is happening.
Anyways, your last line is real. It’s part of why I got off track of a regular practice years ago - it really did feel weird to be disconnected from people in that way. I felt like Dr Manhattan, being tired of these people and their problems, as goofy as that sounds. I’d like to think that’s not how everyone reacts, maybe that was just my young adult narcissism in action.
In another way though, it was almost like everyone in the world was on fire, and I had just jumped in a lake - why is everyone out there still running around screaming in pain, and insisting that I was the weird one for being wet?
There’s probably a balance there somewhere. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this lol, but I appreciate your viewpoint is what I’m trying to say.
