A lively and razor-sharp critique of mindfulness as it has been enthusiastically co-opted by corporations, public schools, and the US military.
Ronald Purser is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University. His essays and cultural criticism have appeared in the Huffington Post, Salon, Alternet and Tricycle magazine. His viral article, "Beyond McMindfulness", opened the floodgates for the mindfulness backlash. His recent books include the Handbook of Mindfulness- Culture, Context and Social Engagement and the Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness. Dr. Purser began his Buddhist training beginning in 1981 at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California and is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Korean Zen Taego order. He is co-host of Mindful Cranks podcast and is a regular speaker and guests on radio shows and podcasts. He lives with his family and dog in San Francisco, CA.
“In this insightful book, Ron Purser has evaluated the strengths
and weakness of the mindfulness movement, while clearly showing the
way to cultivate authentic mindfulness that liberates us from the
true causes of individual and collective suffering.”
- B. Alan Wallace, President, Santa Barbara Institute for
Consciousness Studies
“Far from being either a harmless form of New Age self-indulgence
or meditation dressed up as a medicalized antidote to the
ubiquitous stresses of modern life, Ron Purser sees the mindfulness
movement as epitomizing a malignant trend of contemporary Western
individualism, one that is blinding us to the social problems of
inherent in neoliberalism and capitalism, providing an anodyne
where what is needed is rigorous analysis and political
action.”
- Barry Magid, author of What’s Wrong With Mindfulness
“McMindfulness makes an important critique of self-centered
mindfulness and points us towards a new vision for real
social change.”
- Christopher Titmuss, author of The Political
Buddha
“Ron Purser cuts through the comforting New Age jargon used to
promote mindfulness, enabling us to distinguish between the
practice and its marketing.”
- Richard Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies
"Timely and incisive... Purser reveals how mindfulness became a
vast industry, promising to cure us of a growing range of
psychological ailments, and simultaneously propping up the
political and economic system that generates them.”
— William Davies, author of Nervous
States and The Happiness Industry
“If you are wondering about whether mindfulness is really a panacea
for all our problems, this is the book to read.” — David
Loy, author of Money, Sex, War and Karma
"Provocatively illustrates how mindfulness has been hijacked by
corporate interests, turned into an opiate of the masses, and how
we can radically rethink the meaning of mindfulness in contemporary
life.”
— Dr. Steven Stanley, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff
University
"Spiky, witty, meticulously researched and thoroughly
engaging, McMindfulness is the best assessment of
‘Mindfulness’ to date."
— Manu Bazzano, author of Zen and Therapy: Heretical
Perspectives and editor of After Mindfulness: new
Perspectives on Psychology and Meditation
"A much needed wake-up call to the dark side of mindfulness-based
practices... a must-read.”
– Richard King, Professor of Buddhist and Asian Studies,
University of Kent.
"Just the right book at just the right time... May it help turn the
tide of western ‘spirituality’ toward a genuine model of personal
and social health.”
— Glenn Wallis, author of A Critique of Western
Buddhism and Director of Insight Seminars
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