The WSJ is saying I have to subscribe, but the line before it cuts me off is hysterical:
âI am getting myself into a state where I can be a warrior because I am centered,â says the head of the producer of colorful food-storage containers.
So thanks for that.
I was looking for images of a tupperware warrior on Google, but alas, this does not yet exist on the Internets.
Rick Goings is the CEO I think, and he does TM per that Maharishi guy.
Meh. Research shows that religious chanting has positive benefits for people, but each specific tradition claims it as a unique aspect of their own.
Hereâs something all yâall may enjoy:
However, while chanting AmitÄbha and viewing negative pictures participantsâ heart rate did not differ significantly from that observed during neutral picture viewing. It is possible that the chanting of AmitÄbha might have helped the participants to develop a religious schema and neutralized the effect of the negative stimuli. These findings echo similar research findings on Christian religious practices and brain responses to negative stimuli.
Hence, prayer/religious practices may have cross-cultural universality in emotion regulation. This study shows for the first time that Buddhist chanting, or in a broader sense, repetition of religious prayers will not modulate brain responses to negative stimuli during the early perceptual stage, but only during the late-stage emotional/cognitive processing.
Tupperware warriors 
Both male and female tupperware warriors then? 
with metta
Ha ha! Yes! Perfect, @Nadine! This picture brings back memories of the tupperware parties my Mom and her friends would have when I was little! Thanks for the nostalgia! 
I am not a big fan of these kinds of things that all fall along the mindset of " omg them evil corporates are co-opting meditation for their evil ways" or the " oh yeah look at all this mcmindfulness and how they are ruining meditation".
I am proof positive that meditation DOES in fact boost productivity. I can remember being at my desk( I worked CPS) so many times with a paperwork deadline to document all my activity, and being anxious, agitated, my mind constantly trying to avoid doing the work, checking my phone etc, all the while getting pressure from my supervisor who was getting pressure from her supervisor who was trying to make sure government mandates were being met.
Then I take just a simple minute to follow my breath and refocus, and I complete more in 45 minutes then the previous 3 hours.
I have no issues with an âevil corporationâ encouraging their workers to meditate, I canât see anything but good coming out of that. I can tell you for sure that my goals when I first started meditation were not " the ending of all defilements". I wanted to try it for stress and health reasons.
My only problem with mindfulness in the workplace would come if a company FORCES someone to meditate, and I donât think itâs to that point yet.
I donât think the Buddha went forth from the household life to boost productivity.
I found meditation through a MBSR class offered through a large evil plutocratic corporation. From there I found the dhamma. Its been something like 12-13 years since then. I think I got way more out of it than they did.
IMO the OP of this thread contains content that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.
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I see no evidence for the the strong charge about âsubjugating the working classâ.
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Plutocrat is almost always used in a pejorative sense.
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Corporate is often used by political activists, including Buddhist activists, as a âdog whistleâ / coded phrase for a pejorative.
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The OP makes reference to material behind a paywall. Only the publicly available portion of the linked article should be considered in evaluating the content of the OP.
Thus I would put it that
- the title of the OP employees emotionally charged language suggesting prejudice and invective.
- The title of the OP makes a strong charge that is factually questionable.
See also the comment by @Bhikkhu_Jayasara
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Yes indeed, âplutocratâ is often used in a pejorative sense.â Similarly, âoligarchâ, âaristocratâ, and âtyrantâ are also used in pejorative senses.
I have no idea what secret coded message you think I am passing on, but you may infer from the obvious cheeky tone of my post that I disdain plutocracy, the corporate domination of contemporary society, and the subjugated condition of the working classes in societies that are controlled by hierarchies of concentrated private wealth. I have no need to dog whistle about those things.
I agree with @Feynman. There is not much kindness and compassion found in the OPâs title. As Buddhists:
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Are we going to paint a whole class of people (CEOs) with the same negative brushstroke?
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Are we going to criticize people for meditating?
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Do we have the right to stop the âwrong peopleâ from meditating?
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Is it beneficial to create hate and animosity towards a whole class of people?
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Should we be encouraging this type of speech?
I really had no idea my Onion-like post subject line would spark such powerful responses.
Nevertheless, in all serious, while I donât think we ever should criticize anybody simply for meditating, and for working toward their own liberation in their own haphazard way, I think we can and should be critical of people using meditation as a tool for the attainment of coercive or material worldly ends.
How far do we go here? What if the story were about a soldier who found that meditation made him more calm and productive
in the violation of the first precept?
Tell the CEO to treat his/her employees fairly, not to stop meditating. Tell the soldier to stop killing or find a non-combat assignment, not to stop meditating.
As the saying goes, âDonât throw away the baby with the bathwater.â
I would say that if a person doesnât understand that the Buddhaâs meditation techniques are not part of a path toward worldly control, profit and power, but are rather a path toward release from the world, and toward dropping the burden of egoistic ends and preoccupations, then they canât really be doing it right.
Buddhists sometimes seem pleased or flattered that some simulacrum of Buddhist mediation is being practiced in the world of affairs. But the cheapening of the path and its superficial yoking to commerce and power can bring discredit on it.
If Angulimala weâre alive today, then rather than giving up violence altogether in order to live the holy life, he would just have kept up his old career as a mass murderer, and become a modern mindfulness meditator, and the author of a best-selling self help book on becoming a centered warrior.
This once again comes down to there being 8 path factors not just one or two. Also sammÄ vs miccha samadhi.
Yes, there is a joke that goes around here about the average American practioner of the Buddhism presented in the self-help dhamma books and glossy magazines: they practice âthe noble two-fold path.â
I missed the obvious part; especially the endearing or amusing aspect. Obvious?? Hardly.
Cheeky: impudent or irreverent, typically in an endearing or amusing way.
If you intended cheeky â As a humorous and endearing speaker Iâd say your joke doesnât work in writing. Fail!
In personal, face to face interaction people often experience me as endearing and amusing. Itâs been a hard lesson about how to translate that to the written word.
Things I say in face to face interaction that come across as amusing and endearing are experienced as largely the opposite when I express myself in writing and the words are read.
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Thatâs why itâs called a blind spot. A better editor and/or writing circle might be able to sort you out.