PARENTAL WARNING: The Mindful Indoctrination

We are being introduced to a new element in our public schools called "mindfulness".  One of our parents alerted me to this recently.  They shared this link with me.  (Click HERE to see it.)  I'm blogging on this, not because I have completed a thorough research, but because I believe that this parent is right.  This subject material brought into our schools ought to concern us.  

For years we have known that Christianity is disdained and discarded in the public school system. The rhetoric is to keep religion out of the secular scholastic experience.  "Mindfulness" is nothing short of Buddhism dressed in New Age garments and touted as irreligious.  

Holistic Life Foundation defines mindfulness as:

Mindfulness is the combination of awareness, centering, and being present. It is the awareness of your thoughts, emotions, actions, and energy. It is the ability to get centered and stay centered in all situations. And it is the ability to be present, not letting internal and external distractions take you from the current moment. This leads to the development of empathy, compassion, love, balance, and harmony

Time will not permit any extensive treatment of that definition, but I would suggest two things:

1. Those words: empathy, compassion, love, etc. all have unique meaning within the New Age culture.  A careful analysis will show you that what a Christian means by compassion is not the same as a Buddhist.
2. The basic premise of Christianity is founded in the reality of the presence of God in the world, not apart from the world.  That is profoundly different than New Age thinking.

Is meditation part of the Christian experience?  Is it a means of grace?  Yes!  Click HERE for a great response to that.  "The hunger for techniques such as Mindfulness and the plethora of other New Age therapies should, perhaps, be a wake up call to the Church. Only Jesus Christ can give true peace and healing. The Christian Church itself must rediscover that time spent in meditation upon God and His Word brings healing and true peace, not only for ourselves but for all those with whom we live, work and worship." [1]

There is also a helpful Facebook page on the subject.  You can find it by clicking HERE.

"Mindfulness and the practice of Christianity do not mesh and cannot co-exist.

"If you are not a Christian, consider whether or not you wish to attach yourself to a teaching of non-attachment that stems from teachings that reject God, the concept of self, and the concept of an individual mind, while exalting a belief that the ultimate state is one of extinction from all desire, in which you essentially do not exist." [2]

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV)

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1. Here is a good article on the subject written from a Christian perspective go to http://www.maranathacommunity.org.uk/resources.aspx and click on the link "Mindfulness".
2. http://christiananswersforthenewage.org/Articles_Mindfulness.html