Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The cult of ‘mindfulness’

Separating meditation from faith is a dubious business, morally and sometimes in its effects

issue 01 November 2014

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[/audioplayer]The chances are that by now either you or someone you know well has begun to practise ‘mindfulness’ — a form of Buddhism lite, that focuses on meditation and ‘being in the now’. In the past year or so it’s gone from being an eccentric but harmless hobby practised by contemporary hippies to a new and wildly popular pseudo–religion; a religion tailor-made for the secular West.

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