Q: What’s an area of mindfulness research, learning, or teaching that feels urgent to you in this moment?
A:
We’re living in a world that’s really devoid of wisdom right now. We’re deploying all kinds of emotional intelligence and intellectual intelligence skills to try and solve problems, but the lack of wisdom is really hurting us. We need to develop that capacity and be much more clear that wisdom is not just an awareness or a blank state, but that it actually has its own intelligence. We need a way of reconnecting with that intelligence, and also making sure it is integrated with the other skills we need to navigate the world.
There is an argument that the state of awareness in mindfulness is ethically neutral, a blank state. In my personal experience, awareness is not neutral. Rather, it comes with a feeling of being connected to something much larger than yourself, a higher perspective about your place in the world, and there’s a sense of belonging that comes with that feeling of oneness with life. And when we feel that sense of oneness and belonging—what I sometimes call our true self—there is also a sense of benevolence that arises toward yourself, others, and the environment.
