Are Mindfulness and Meditation Natural?

Mindfulness and Meditation are becoming increasingly more popular these days as people look for ways to cope in a world that is becoming increasingly more chaotic and stressful. Some feel that meditation is best in a natural setting that provides a backdrop of natural beauty and tranquility. We have already discussed whether or not these natural settings really are natural. So we don't need to go down that path. But, it does bear asking whether or not meditation in particular or mindfulness in general is natural or artificial.

People meditate for a variety of reasons. Some meditate because their friends do. Some meditate because it is an affirmation of their world view. Some meditate because it lowers their stress levels or their blood pressure. Some meditate because it makes them more effective at other things that they need or want to do. It is not up to me to judge whether any of these reasons are good or bad. But, I wanted to allow for the fact that there are many reasons for meditation and I am going to focus on just one.

Many people who meditate do so because it helps quiet their minds. We are constantly bombarded with thoughts that create stress or make us fearful or unhappy.This is sometimes referred to as "Monkey Mind" but it is an experience that most people experience. Thoughts pop into your head, sometimes in rapid fire, that cause you concern and stress. "My boss gave me a funny look this morning. Am I going to loose my job?", "My car made a funny noise. I hope it isn't going to be something expensive.", "That's a funny bump on my arm. Is it a bug bite, or melanoma? If its melanoma, did I catch it in time?", "We are going out with a new couple tonight. I hope they aren't judgemental. I really don't like judgemental people", and so on, and so on.

Why does this happen? Evolutionary biologists explain this in a way that is making great headway into the mindfulness community. First, we evolved an advanced neo-cortex which allows us to model the world in which we live and make predictions. This ability to anticipate rather than participate saved a lot of our hominid ancestors from predators and thus created an evolutionary advantage.In addition, our brain generates scenarios and lobs them into our conscious mind for consideration. "Is that grayish brown blog a lion or a rock?"

Unfortunately, our minds have gotten really good at generating scenarios as we have gotten really bad at distinguishing between a remote scenario and one that is worthy of consideration and we suffer from the emotional impact of too many negative although very unlikely scenarios. So, we have to calm our minds and meditation is a great way to do that. But, if meditation is an attempt to overcome millennia of natural evolution, can it really be considered natural? I would strongly argue that it isn't. Meditation is technique developed by humans to overcome negative aspects of our natural evolution. Meditation is artificial and it is a good thing.