Table of Contents
- NEW BOOK>
The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing Change from the Inside Out
- RESOURCE>
Buddhism Research Guide from University of Buffalo (SUNY)
NEW
BOOK> The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing Change from the Inside Out
by Alison Denton Jones
Hello folks,Those of you interested in the two books that Richard Jaffe shared may also be interested in the following book by my colleague in sociology: The Mindful Elite: Mobilizing Change from the Inside Out, 2019, Oxford University Press, by Jaime Kucinskas
The Mindful Elite examines how a network of professionals and other elites legitimized Buddhist-inspired meditation in healthcare, science, education, business and the military to make it more appealing and accessible to the public. Based on over a hundred interviews with top scientists, contemplative religious leaders, educators, business people and investors, the book shows how mindful leaders’ choices to spread meditation through elite networks in unobtrusive, collaborative ways both facilitated the rapid rise of mindful meditation in a variety of professional fields, yet undermined meditators’ intentions to make society more just, democratic and less materialistic.
The leaders of the mindfulness movement popularized meditation by teaching contemplative practices which promised enhanced mental, physical, and spiritual well-being, by using elite networks to promote their ‘interventions,’ and by adapting the practices in manifold ways to each new institutional audience. However, due to their focus on individual transformation and commitment to cater to targeted institutions’ preferences and needs, ultimately mindful interventions did little to alter the organizations they were embedded within.
The book offers a critical reflection on how elite institutional insiders can promote spirituality through the many kinds of social and economic power at their disposal, yet remain constrained by the institutions they are a part of. As such tensions unfold and surface, movement organizations can draw upon their spiritual traditions to face such challenges directly through collective processes of reflection and authenticity building. By focusing on the mechanisms which led to the successes and shortcomings of this elite spiritual movement, this case offers lessons on power, religious diffusion, and secularization. It also lends insights on other movements promoting change across institutional fields through elite insiders, such as the climate change movement and identity movements seeking equality by gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
RESOURCE>
Buddhism Research Guide from University of Buffalo (SUNY)
by Lewis Doney
Posting on behalf of Michael Kicey.
Dear colleagues,
I am a librarian
for the humanities at University at Buffalo (SUNY). I am writing to share with
you an extensive new guide to research on Buddhism, which I have created and
which has just been published today:
This guide is
designed to support anyone who is interested in reading about or doing research
on Buddhism, whether novice or expert, lay or monastic, public or scholarly.
The guide links directly to the UB library catalog where items are available,
but nearly all of the information it offers will be of use to readers and
researchers regardless of whether they are members of the UB community or not.
I also welcome
your suggestions for books, links, or other resources that can be added to the
guide, or any other comments you might have.
Yours,
Mike K.
Michael Kicey
Humanities
Liaison Librarian
424 Lockwood
Memorial Library
University at
Buffalo, State University of New York
Buffalo NY 14260
716.645.7744
