Why meditate?

[JonW]

This from Brad Warner's latest blog:
"I think that in the future - maybe 50 years from now, maybe 200 if we're pretty slow - people will look back on our culture where very few people meditated the way we look back on cultures where very few people brushed their teeth. They'll wonder how we could have neglected something that is so obviously necessary for a decent life. They'll marvel at the fact that the knowledge was there, that the teachers were available, that the activity itself was so simple and obviously good for you, and yet so few people took the initiative to do it."
It's an interesting thought. I agree with Brad. Future generations will almost certainly think it strange that meditation was once a minority practice, rather than the norm. Or is that just me being optimistic about future generations?
Btw, here's the link to Brad Warner's very entertaining blog:
http://hardcorezen.info
Brad Warner is the author of Hardcore Zen, a book I highly recommend.

[Gareth]

Here's to optimism. I was already an optimistic guy, and I have found that mindfulness has made me even more optimistic.

I too believe that one day we can get this out to the whole world. It might take while yet, but let's just take it one moment at a time eh?

[FeeHutch]

Yep I agree too With mindfulness entering popular culture the misconceptions around meditation and mindfulness are being dispelled and it is easy to see how much sense it makes.

[GianKarlo]

Through Meditation were able to release bad stress factors in our body and changing it with positive thoughts to maintain a healthy living. Most often our mind has a great impact in our own well being.

[BioSattva]

"They'll wonder how we could have neglected something that is so obviously necessary for a decent life. They'll marvel at the fact that the knowledge was there, that the teachers were available, that the activity itself was so simple and obviously good for you, and yet so few people took the initiative to do it."

We can marvel now, though, right?

I think the situation can be put in context if we consider the social setup - our cooperative faculties via language have apparently been our biggest boon; our creation of abstract concepts via our huge brains revolves around communication - itself a product of communities.

Us humans are impressed by large-scale social organization and interaction. We already have our farms and machines giving us more resources than we need, and so we now the scene is set for human populations to grow - even beyond the confines of this planet. Cities are an inescapable phenomenon, and since they form the beating hearts of nations, then it is how to live in a city which concerns most people it seems.

It's easy to set up a small monastery here, or a little eco-community there, but what about large-scale human living and all the issues that brings - where people don't have donations or trust funds to get them through the tough times? The larger the community the higher the rate and variety of social problems - where one criminal in a village is a lonely black sheep, 3 criminals in a town can be a gang. To really promote and highlight the power of mindfulness by "becoming the solution", I think that solution needs to be witnessed beyond an individual, beyond a household, or a yoga retreat, and be seen in a large-scale modern city. Otherwise it seems it's just going to be taken as spiritual nonsense.

Now, how do we go about creating a mindful city?

[Gareth]

Surely I can be mayor?