Cutting the Buddha’s body to fit the neoliberal suit: Mindfulness - From Practice, to Purchase, to Praxis

This paper will consider how the secularising and psychologising of Buddhism has encouraged and enabled an almost seamless assimilation of mindfulness into a consumerist, neoliberal ideology and framework – leading to the emergence of a distinctly neoliberal mindfulness (Purser et al. 2016). In particular, I wish to consider the language of mindfulness, and how in the wrong mouths, this can disempower individuals as opposed to liberating and awakening them - as originally prescribed in the original Buddhist Sutras (scriptures). In the conclusion, I wish to consider how Buddhism in America is becoming more politically and socially engaged, in order to appropriately address and respond to the warning of the eminent Buddhist monk, translator and activist Bhikkhu Bodhi: ‘… absent a sharp social critique, Buddhist practices could easily be used to justify and stabilise the status quo, becoming a reinforcement of consumer capitalism.’ (Bodhi quoted in Eaton 2013)

https://discourseunit.com/annual-review/arcp-13-di...