Catherine Shaddix, PsyD, Instructor, Baywell Psychiatry Group.
Hidden cultural assumptions and unacknowledged worldviews permeate the myriad forms of Buddhist practice that one might encounter in 2017, from what is represented in popular media to what one might practice at a local meditation center. These powerful underlying worldviews can influence why we take up contemplative practices, what is available to see and what we choose to see about ourselves and others in our communities, how we experience ourselves in the world “outside” of Buddhist practice, and what conclusions we draw about what is possible in human life. In the past 20 years, the findings of contemplative research have played an enormous role in the evolution of both secularized and religious forms of Buddhist practice, perhaps contributing to narcissistic tendencies reverberant in our modern culture and unwittingly limiting the scope of what we can imagine, in addition to fostering tremendous public interest in meditation. Through naming and examining some of the worldviews that have shaped the current landscape of Buddhist practice, we may free ourselves as practitioners and researchers to look critically at where we are, to ask the important questions that are still unaddressed, and to evaluate where we want to go.
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