I talk with Ron Purser, author of “McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality” who critiques mainstream mindfulness programs for their insistence on individual happiness and avoidance of social and political transformation
It seems the more mindfulness is mainstreamed, the more its claims are being questioned. Ron Purser, Professor of Management at SFSU and author of the new groundbreaking book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, has been a longtime critic of the widespread mainstreaming and overselling of mindfulness practices. He views mainstream mindfulness as an amplifier of Western consumerist individualism and a banal form of capitalist spirituality; one he claims utterly avoids cultivation of social and political transformation. Ron challenges the widely accepted narrative that stress is self-imposed and mindfulness is the cure-all, and offers ways for mindfulness delivery in healthcare and business settings to cast off its neoliberal shackles, and be redirected toward collective awakening. Ron and I have known each other for quite some time. He is erudite and engaging. I"m sure you will enjoy this stimulating, thought-provoking conversation.
Ron Purser is Professor of Management in the College of Business and the Educational Doctorate in Leadership program in the College of Education at SFSU San Francisco State University. His scholarship currently focuses on mindfulness in organizations, and how Buddhist psychology and Buddhist social theory can inform social change and transformation. In addition, Prof. Purser writings have been exploring the challenges and issues of introducing mindfulness into secular contexts, particularly with regards to its encounter with modernity, Western consumer capitalism, and individualism. Dr. Purser is an ordained Zen Dharma Teacher in the Korean Zen Taego order of Buddhism. Tarthang Tulku Time, Space, and Knowledge
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