Opening a Contemplative Commons During the Great Transition : Reorienting the MBIs

1. Opening a Contemplative CommonsDuring the Great Transition: Reorienting the MBIs Vincenzo Giorgino State University of Torino, Italy Donald McCown West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Center for Contemplative Studies, USA

2. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians, 2:12

3. Background • We come honestly to the individualist and reductionist stances that we assume in the MBIs, and that require the reorientation in our title • The history of European and North American engagement with Asian contemplative traditions tracks neatly with the social and cultural forces acting across the modern period that have led us into • the imminent frame (Taylor) • warring categories of science and religion (Harrison) • valuing universalized knowledge over situated ways of understanding the world (Foley)

4. Background • Today, work in the contemplative dimension is narrowed by our epistemological and therapeutic orientations—reductionist and individualist • Overwhelmingly, that’s how we justify ourselves, and there’s no argument that it works inside the immanent frame • Yet, there are worries and critiques from engaged Buddhists and others, who fear commodification, co-optation, and misuse • Zizek, from a psychoanalytic/Marxist perspective (a counter-context) provides perhaps a proof text: “…although ‘Western Buddhism’ presents itself as the remedy against the stressful tension of capitalist dynamics, allowing us to uncouple and retain inner peace and Gelassenheit, it actually functions as its perfect ideological supplement.” • So, we “look inside” and change ourselves when we all may be better served by looking outward at the predations of the system

5. Context Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind…. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians, 2:2/12

6. A Metaphor for Us “From my cabin where I write…I see eagles… But I also see the ubiquitous poplars quaking high up in the wind. The tree book tells me their Latin name: Populustremuloides, which I loosely translate as the community of trembling people. A move from the fear and trembling of a paternal Abraham or a solitary Nietzschean subject to that of a trembling people, a trembling community, would perhaps be a way of reading the world.” …Verena Andermatt Conley, “Communal Crisis”

7. More Background The commodification of mindfulness Four in 10 adults in the US meditate at least weekly $ 1,2B revenue in 2017 (US ony) An estimated 2,200 mindfulness teachers have been trained (2005-2015) to minimum standards in the UK Some 1300 mindfulness apps are available In 2016 the whole wellness industry valued $3,72tn Ron Purser and David Loy 2013 “Beyond McMindfulness,” The Blog, August 31, 2013 Mindful Nation 2015, UK Report The Global Wellness Institute, cited in H. Garlick, “The Madness of Mindfulness,” The Financial Times, February 3, 2017

8. Buddhists, Markets, and Money • Centrality of the practice of danaand the InexhaustibleTreasury (V-X cent. a.d. in China) • The fundamentalcontribution to the birth of capitalism in Japan by Buddhism, the Pure Land sect in particular

9. ProblematicCentrality of Craving In the beginning, thereis no craving.

10. Pressures of Our Social Context TheAnthropocene and the Great Transition The Anthropocene: Humans dominate nature and changeit Politics of life itself (Rose), or Bioeconomy, meansthatwe can manipulateand expand life, and even create it AI and digitalinnovation in general make the picture more complex and intriguing Homo Deus, as an Israelihistoriancalled the human condition of ourtimes The Great Transition: Shifted from from its use in the environmentalist culture to a broadermeaning Itisintendedas the currentpassage from a social and economicsystem— capitalismasweknowit—to something new What’s new? The non market social production or commons-basedeconomy (Benkler, Rifkin) t

12. The Network Society

13. The Network Society • Digital networking expands individual and collective wealth • M. Castells Network society 1996 The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Vol.1. • In 2006, the jurist Yochai Benkler devoted a special study to the expansion of non-market and non-proprietary social production—the real innovative trend of our times • It consists of two processes in place for at least a century: • the development of an economy centered on information and cultural production • the development of a communication environment built on cheap processors with high calculation capacity, interconnected in a pervasive network (the Internet) Technological disruption: mainframes→pcs→ the internet→ social networks

15. From Emancipatory Politics to Life Politics • The formercorresponds to the first modernity, from the industrial revolution to the 1980s, and are characterized by the defense of classinterests; in otherwords for allthoseelementsthatrespond to collectiveinequalities and define the sameindividuals • The latterisrelated to the mostcomplex, modernphase of modernity, where the nexusindividual-roles, individuals-institutions are lost. The individualcomesinto play assuch, as a living human being • Itisrelated to questionsabout the verymeaning of human existence, shifted from the private sphere to the public arena, with a new strategicpoliticalvalue

16. The Web of OurInteractions

17. The magic of the GAFA world isyou, butyoudon’tknowit… The GAFA world is made by applications to Internet protocols. Ifyoufollow the moneyyouwillfindmillions or a couple of billions in case of FB customersentwined/hooked up asmussels to itswiresbecause the human need of interactioncalls for satisfaction. And ithappens and itis for free like a free beer, not free speech. You do notpay in cash, but the more preciousgiftsyoukeep on giving are yourdigitalidentities—, as in real life youhave more thanone—and yourinteractions, whereyou share yourvalues, tastes, and choices. Personal data are valuableassets: FaceBookrevenueis 88% from advertising based on yourpreciousgifts. ALL IS INTERACTION T

18. A Disruptive Innovation • Distributed ledgertechnology (or bitcoinblockchain) has the potential to transform society • The bitcoin blockchain is a distributed ledger that allows transactions between peers without any central control (be it a bank, the state, etc) • This means that there is no central server and the validation of transactions is provided by voluntary contributions from peers who receive in-kind compensation—a certain amount of bitcoins

19. The EnactiveApproachin Community Mindfulness • “The bodily life regulationiscrucial for cognition… • The social sensorimotor interaction can be a constitutive part of social cognition“ (cited in Di Paolo and Thompson 2014) • Enactive • Embodied • Embedded • Expanded • Living organisms are autonomous (interdependently) • and learn from experience

20. Contemplative Commons* What if we see the group practice of mindfulness as a commons?* *Thanks to Zack Walsh for the term.

21. Characteristics • A commons may arise whenever a community decides it wishes to manage a resource in a collective manner, with a special regard for equitable access, use, and sustainability. • We tend to think of natural and physical resources, because of our embedded economic views, but a commons is more accurately defined as • a specific community • that manages a particular resource • through a set of self-generated social protocols

22. Starting from an MBI Group • Specific community: These people, in this space, gathered for this purpose • Particular resource: The properties co-created within that space and time through mindfulness practice; not a possession or outcome of any one person—rather there is an atmosphere • All reside in it, though not all contribute in the same way at the same level each time • We will investigate a sketch of “ethical space” next • Social protocols: Co-creation of mindfulness unique to the group; each group is different each time they meet as they define the common resource for themselves

23. Starting from an MBI Group

24. Moving to a Commons • (MBI teachers, you know it’s a commons; you share in the space that is created—a resource that can co-regulate you; it’s key to your resilience) • Unique adaptations of the qualities of the doing, non-doing, and friendship dimensions ensure that each particular group can learn to work with difference and dissent—a strong community is dangerous • If we can agree that friendship is a virtue, a good, we can note that the good aligns with creativity, with the new moment , and gives rise to a “weak community” (Caputo) that recognizes both obligation and dissent • Within such a commons, perhaps one can hear Augustine’s short command: “Love, and do what you will.” • Here, perhaps is the way to bring together contemplative practice and the potential of the digital economy—to bring designers into the contemplative commons, to create systems with friendship at the base

25. Moving Away • The subversion and destruction of the commons is aptly termed “enclosure” • Picture common grazing land fenced in, off, out • Example: patientslikeme.com • Enclosed by big pharma funding! • No longer peer-to-peer, but corporate structure, moderated with commercial intention • What does enclosure of the contemplative commons look like? • Manualization? • Promotion of expertise? • Denominational boundaries?

26. Back to the Metaphor • The leaves of Populustremuloidestrembling together in community—working towards that like-mindedness that for Paul, as for Aristotle, in fact, defines an ethical community • Ponder the microclimate generated within a growing forest • (Here’s a little story from Peter Wohlleben’sThe Hidden Life of Trees) • As Batchelor suggests: “According to Buddhist orthodoxy, following the eightfold path leads to the complete end of suffering by bringing the cycle of death and rebirth to an end.” In contrast, in the discourse The City, “following the eightfold path leads to the emergence of a city: a collaborative city life in this world” (Batchelor 2015: 89) • The digital economy offers instruments to promote and sustain such a vision

27. Further Reading • Vincenzo M. B. Giorgino & Zack Walsh (eds.) (2018). Co-DesigningEconomies in Transition Radical Approaches in Dialogue with Contemplative Social Sciences, PalgraveMcMillan. • Valerie Malhotra-Benz & Vincenzo M.B. Giorgino (eds.) (2016). Contemplative Social Research: Caring for Self, Being, and Lifeworld, FieldingUniversity Press. • Giorgino V.M.B. and D. McCown, (2018). “Life Skills for Peer Production: WalkingTogetherthrough a Space of ‘Not-Knowing’” Journal of Peer Production, IssueCityhttp://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-11-city/experimental-format/life-skills-for-peer-production-walking-together-through-a-space-of-not-knowing/ • McCown, D. (2013). The ethical space of mindfulness in clinical practice. London: Jessica Kingsley. • McCown, D. (2018). Co-creating the ethical space of mindfulness-based interventions. In R. Purser, S. Stanley, & N.N. Singh (eds.), Handbook of ethical foundations of mindfulness. New York: Springer. • McCown, D. (2017). Introduction: A new hope. In L. Monteiro, J. Compson, & F. Musten (eds.), Practitioner’s Guide to Ethics and Mindfulness-Based Interventions. New York: Springer. • McCown, D. (2016). Inside-Out: The Mindfulness-Based Interventions as a model for community building. In V. Bentz, & V. Giorgino (eds.). Contemplative social research: Caring for self, being, and lifeworld. Santa Barbara, CA: Fielding University Press.

28. Questions?