I’ve been struggling with a question about mindfulness and meditation and an inherent contradiction or tension that I see with it. I’ve had difficulty putting it into words but I think the contradiction can be articulated well with an analogy to the Lion King.

In the Lion King, Simba, stricken with guilt over the death of his father, runs away and meets Timon and Pumba who teach him to forget his worries (Hakuna Matata). In the jungle, he lives for a number of years, until Rafiki comes and tells him that he can’t just run from the past, he has to learn from it – and in doing so he returns to face his uncle and ‘take his rightful place as king’

Now, one may say that the lesson of Hakuna Matata isn’t mindfulness – it is just escapism. However, let’s change the story just a little bit so that Timon and Pumba are instead, enlightened Buddhist monks. They teach him how to meditate, be mindful, and be at peace with the present. For the next years Simba learns to sit, be mindful, and be content with his past and subsequently the present and future.

The question that I have struggled with is, is there anything wrong with Simba doing this? Simply being mindful and content? When Rafiki comes and tell him he needs to take on the responsibility, would doing so be antithetical to mindfulness? What would an enlightened Simba do in this situation? Would he simply respond that one should not dwell on the past and the future?

Indeed, a quote that has been translated from Buddha – “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment” – would suggest that this would be Simba’s response[1].

Ultimately, it is here that I find the tension between mindfulness philosophy and life. While I see the benefits in not dwelling on the negative aspects of life and not seeking to hold on to the impermanence of positive aspects; taken to its logical conclusions, I’m not sure what to do with respect to expectations, goals, and responsibilities. There may be no inherent problem to those who opt to take off and join a monastery to meditate for the rest of my life. But what if they had children? Or family and friends? Or a job where other people depended on them? Is that a problem and how does Buddhist and mindfulness philosophy answer it?

My answer (although it continues to evolve as I learn more about life as well as the tradition and philosophies inherent to Buddhism and meditation) is that this mindfulness philosophy, which has been exported recently to the rest of the world, has lost much of its original ethical and pragmatic context. It is a misconception to think that ‘living mindfully’ means we should only stop at our minds and not engage ourselves in changing the world.’

In most present societies, we often suffer focusing solely on the next goal, the next action, the next success or failure, while never being aware of exactly why we are doing what we do. We are told that the next promotion, a bigger house, or a more expensive car will be the ticket to our happiness, never stopping to think about whether it is true. Taking the time to become aware of our motivations might lead us to realise that the next goal, the next promotion, or the bigger house, will not really make us happy. However, if the next promotion isn’t what will make us happy, what will?

This is where the ethical and pragmatic aspects of the philosophy need to come to play. We do have responsibilities to each other, we do need to learn and make amends from our past actions, and we do need to think about how our current actions will impact the future. This doesn’t mean that we need to be anxious or consistently dwell on these aspects, particularly when there’s nothing to do; but it does mean we need to be aware of them and act accordingly when we can. If we learn that constant focus on the next success isn’t the best use of our energy, maybe we can focus on things that are. Indeed, it is why the Dalai Lama, rather than simply isolating himself in practice, engages with the world, imparting kindness, compassion, and trying to teach others to do the same.

Had Rafiki come across a meditating Simba who retorted with something along the lines of ‘let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present’ – a smack to the head and a quip about how ‘the past can hurt’ may have only solidified Simba’s resolve to not dwell on the past – as pain is but another sensation. Only with the acknowledgment that suffering and wellbeing are real (even if impermanent), and that we each have a responsibility to ease the latter and promote the former for ourselves and others where we are able to, would Simba have taken the action and can the tensions be alleviated between mindfulness and life.[2]

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[1] Accordingly, this translation which comes The Teaching of Buddha: The Buddhist Bible : A Compendium of Many Scriptures Translated from the Japanese (1934), may be somewhat inaccurate, but other translations do nothing to alleviate the central tension; instead suggesting that even the present is something to ‘let go’ of as well (e.g. Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present, and cross over to the farther shore of existence.).

[2] Two final caveats. First, I am by no means an expert in mindfulness and Buddhist philosophy and these ideas may be either completely mainstream to those who are – and if so, great; although it is troubling that it doesn’t seem to be fully permeating the ‘new’ mindfulness community. Or they may be completely missing something and I’d be very interested to learn more. Second, the fact that the Lion King almost explicitly suggests that it’s ok to shun an entire species is problematic and so we’ll assume that an enlightened Simba would look for a way to include the Hyenas in the ‘circle of life’