15AR20-39

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AR 20:39 - Meditation for Strivers

Apologia Report 20:39 (1,268)

November 18, 2015

In this issue:

AMISH CHRISTIANITY - another giant gap between sentimental Christian fiction ... and reality

BUDDHISM - New Yorker magazine finds "mindfulness ... resembles New Thought far more than it does any Eastern religion"

ISLAM - Time magazine speculates about what may be "the most relevant book of the year"

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AMISH CHRISTIANITY

"Living with the Amish is actually no romance novel, one woman explains" by Emily McFarlan Miller -- "Emma Gingerich doesn't have anything against the Amish romance novels that have become such a popular subset of Christian fiction.

"Gingerich just hopes readers realize those novels romanticize the Amish lifestyle - something she knows about first-hand. ...

"Amazon now lists 1,504 results in its Amish romance category. Between 2003 and 2013, the genre's three most popular authors alone sold more than 24 million novels, according to the Wall Street Journal <www.goo.gl/9n00oO>. And between 2003 and 2010, others self-published more than 150 Amish e-books, the Journal reported. ...

"Unlike the sweet romances of the novels, Gingerich was confused - not charmed - by Amish dating rituals, which involved boys she'd never talked to before spending the night in her bed. ...

"Even the simple life lost its appeal when her parents refused an MRI after she began having severe headaches; instead, she endured medieval-sounding medical treatments that involved inserting balloons up her nose and inflating them. ...

"Gingerich started a blog, Runaway Amish Girl <runawayamishgirl.com>, and discovered writing down her thoughts and experiences was therapeutic for her. It also seemed to resonate with others, some who also want to leave the Amish and some who just have been inspired by her story. ...

"She now attends the evangelical Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. She even decided to be baptized, a decision she had resisted when Amish.

"The Amish share basic Christian beliefs, emphasizing values like simplicity, separation from the world and the authority of the local church its members. But, Gingerich said, to be baptized in the church is to agree to the Ordnung, to the long skirts and bonnets and the rules she didn't understand. And it would have meant shunning if she didn't follow those rules." Washington Post, Jul 24 '15, n.p. <www.goo.gl/6TpT8B>

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BUDDHISM

"Meditation for Strivers" by Jacob Rubin describes "the recent flourishing of corporate mindfulness" in America and a Bloomberg News article <www.goo.gl/lE3pNh> which reported on "the increasing use of meditation among hedge funders to maximize performance (some call themselves corporate samurai and ninjas). How did strivers everywhere come to appropriate a twenty-five-hundred-year-old philosophy of non-striving?" Rubin reviews some examples.

Rubin notes that mindfulness meditation is also known as Vipassana, where "The 'mindfulness' refers to the nonjudmental observance of thought."

Reviewing the new book 10% Happier by Dan Harris [1], Rubin reports that Harris discusses related history, explaining "The journey from a Buddhism antithetical to Western go-getting has been charted quite consciously by a number of influential practitioners in the baby-boom generation." The New Yorker, Jul 10 '15 <www.goo.gl/M6BF6N>

In a related earlier piece, "The Long Marriage of Mindfulness and Money," Michelle Goldberg notes that the above-mentioned Bloomberg article "described how mindfulness meditation, which has roots in Theravada Buddhism, a predominant school in Southeast Asia, works for corporate types....

"American capitalism has had a long and durable romance with Eastern spirituality, and the latter has hardly undermined the former. For well over a century, business-minded Americans have been transforming Hindu and Buddhist contemplative practices into an unlikely prosperity gospel." Goldberg reviews the history, starting with New Thought. In the bargain, she finds that in the early 1900s, "Writing in Advanced Thought, a New Thought magazine, Ramacharaka emphasized that his ideas coincided with those of its editor, William Walter Atkinson. ...

"Its not surprising that Atkinson and Ramacharaka claimed the same Hindu sources, because they were, in fact, the same person. Ramacharaka was one of Atkinson's several noms de plume, and, as the historian Carl T. Jackson points out, Atkinson was 'by no means the only New Thought writer to masquerade as an Oriental teacher or to offer an 'authentic' course in Eastern wisdom.' ...

"Mindfulness as we know it today was born out of a meeting of pragmatic, modernizing Asian teachers looking to make Buddhism accessible to the West and Western seekers who fit the practice into an Occidental psychological framework. (Particularly important among the latter was Jon Kabat-Zinn, who, in 1979, founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School <umassmed.edu/cfm/stress-reduction>, which offered an eight-week course on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.) A technique once meant to help monks grasp the unreality of the self became the inspiration for a new sort of self-help tool, and from there it was just a short leap to mindfulness becoming a business tool. By all accounts, mindfulness does help people feel more focussed and less frazzled, but it resembles New Thought far more than it does any Eastern religion." The New Yorker, Apr 18 '15 <www.goo.gl/vDJ6bF>

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ISLAM

With the French currently reeling from their worst terror attacks since World War II, this: "Submission, a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq [2] that is newly available in English, tells the story of an Islamic political party overtaking France's government at the ballot box and fundamentally changing society. It became an instant best seller in Europe when it was released on Jan. 7, the same day Muslim extremists murdered 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo. ...

"Houellebecq is never easy reading, but on those grounds alone, Submission may be the most relevant book of the year.

"Over the course of the novel, a fictional Muslim Brotherhood consolidates power in France by joining with the neutered Socialists in the 2022 elections.... The changes the new political party enacts seem to make life only more difficult....

"But Houellebecq stops short of portraying violence or even resistance....

"Even those with concerns about Houellebecq's subject can acknowledge the present moment's potential for radical change [this review by Daniel D'Addario went to press just before the recent terrorist attacks], in one direction or another. At a moment in which American novelists seem wary of delving into politics [i.e., Islam], Houellebecq has clomped onto the world stage and delivered a book whose brash conceit is getting far more attention than its frightened heart." Time, Nov 16 '15, n.p.

At the other end of the spectrum is this analysis of efforts by conservatives to appreciate distinctions within the world of Islam: "Moving beyond suspicion, Muslims and Evangelicals seek common ground" by Harry Bruinius -- summarized: "Across the country, a number of evangelical congregations have been engaging Muslim neighbors in new ways, while Muslim charities have reached out to Christian churches during their time of need." Bruinius profiles Pastor Bob Roberts, head of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church in Keller, a Dallas suburb, and finds this trend positive because "no group is cooler toward Muslims than white evangelical Protestants, a Pew survey <www.goo.gl/YH1NrR> this year found." Christian Science Monitor, Jul 29 '15 <www.goo.gl/wT0beI>

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story, by Dan Harris (Dey Street, 2014, paperback, 256 pages) <www.goo.gl/lfKBUB>

2 - Submission, by Michel Houellebecq (Farrar S & G, 2015, hardcover, 256 pages <www.goo.gl/rA1vaP>

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