Michaelson - Evolving dharma : meditation, buddhism, and the next generation of enlightenment

Other books by Jay Michaelson

God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality

Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism

Another Word for Sky: Poems

God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice

Az Yashir Moshe: A Book of Songs and Blessings

Copyright 2013 Jay Michaelson. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher. For information contact Evolver Editions c/o North Atlantic Books.

Published by Evolver Editions, an imprint of North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover art by Cryptik Movement
Book design by Mary Ann Casler
Cover design by Mary Ann Casler and Michael Robinson

Portions of : Beyond Bliss previously appeared in Exploring the Edge Realms of Consciousness, edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan. North Atlantic Books: 2012.

Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Michaelson, Jay, 1971
Evolving dharma : meditation, Buddhism, and the next generation of enlightenment / Jay Michaelson.
pages cm
Summary: Evolving Dharma is a next-generation book about the contemporary meditation revolution. The work shows how meditation and mindfulness have moved from ashrams and Buddhist monasteries to boardrooms and schools, and how neuroscience is changing how we understand the human mind and how to improve itProvided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-715-9
1. MeditationBuddhism. I. Title.
BQ5612.M52 2013
294.3444dc23
2013012662

v3.1

Its always the same:
once you are free,
you are forced to ask who you are.

J EAN B AUDRILLARD

There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.

W ALLACE S TEVENS ,

T HE P OEMS OF O UR C LIMATE

The Western world is on the cusp of a major transformation around how we understand the mind, the brain, and what to do about them. Meditation and other forms of contemplative practice, once the provenance of religion, then later of spirituality, are now in the American mainstream, in corporate retreats and public schools, as a rational, proven technology to upgrade the mind and optimize the brain, buttressed by hard scientific data and the reports of millions of practitioners.

And this revolution has just begun. In 1983, there had been only three peer-reviewed scientific studies of meditation; by 2013, there had been more than 1,300.

Think about it: In 1983 meditation and mindfulness were fringe phenomena among Westerners, practiced (lets face it) mostly by ex-hippies on spiritual searches. As of 2013, ten million Americans meditate regularly. Meditation is taught in therapeutic contexts, to patients with chronic pain; in churches, synagogues, and community centers; and in new, alternative communities of maverick teachers, independent brainhackers, and dot-com billionaires. We truly are at a turning point.

The original source of these cognitive technologies is the dharma, an ancient word meaning the way, the path, or the teaching. In the most general sense, it can simply refer to the truth of how things are: the laws of the universe, and of the mind. More specifically, it is used in Pali and Sanskrit to refer to the sacred teachings of Indian sages whose traditions eventually became known as Hinduism and Buddhism. Even more specifically, the Dharma is the set of teachings, ideas, and practices taught by Gautama Buddha from 586546 BCE, and by thousands of subsequent teachers and scribes.

Seen from a distance, that these quite ancient traditions are on the cusp of becoming a secular mass phenomenon is really quite bizarre. What was once a monastic tradition of meditation, virtuous action, and wisdom teachings (samadhi, sila, and panna) is now, depending on where you encounter it, a technology of brainhacking; a way to build insular thickness in the brain; a way to lower stress; a mystical path filled with unusual peak experiences; a way to grow more loving, compassionate, and generous; a method to get ahead and gain an edge on your competition; or any number of other things. Love it or hate it, the dharma has evolved.

I want to tell the story of this evolution not simply because it is interesting, but because it changed my life, and it might just change the world. Ive written books about religion, sexuality, and politics; Ive published poetry and prose. But my own story is incomplete without the practices of meditation and mindfulness; indeed, it would have been impossible without them. Thus, this book combines third-person storytellinginterviews with some key players, scientific data, a bit of history, and a fair amount of critical analysisand first-person testimony of a decade or so in the dharma. I want to tell you about the most glorious experiences of my life, and how I outgrew them. I want to talk about what enlightenment can look like, and how meditation is understood neuroscientifically, culturally, even politically. This is a story of monks and soldiers; a history as well as a tale told from my own cultural position, conditioned by my age, gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and all the rest; a narrative of maverick teachers, online communities, Occupy, self-loathing, stress reduction, religion, sex, power, and Google.

Some of these stories are heretical in much of the meditation world today. For traditionalists, the dharma does not evolve; it is perfect, it is complete, it is timeless wisdom whose application may vary but whose essence does not. And for many Westerners, it may be equally heretical to recall that meditation did indeed start out in highly nonsecular contexts, that the practitioners of it were meant to evolve themselves, and that some of those evolutions might be the exact opposite of the clich of the tranquil bliss promised in magazine ads. Well, these dogmas are wrong. The dharma has evolved for 2,500 years, at no time faster than in the last thirty, and its either quaint or fundamentalist to pretend otherwise. And while attaining merit badges is not the purpose of meditation practice, it is also the case that this is a path, and paths lead to places, some of which are beautiful, and some of which are dark.