Friday night I had the opportunity to attend a talk sponsored by the Omega Institute on “Buddhist Psychology for the West”. The stars of Buddhist psychology were there- Mark Epstein, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Being that I’m studying psych., I was excited to attend. I’m definitely interested in incorporating some aspects of Buddhist thought and possibly meditation into my approach to psychotherapy.
The talk was part of a two-day conference at one of those giant hotels in midtown, where Omega was also hosting a weekend yoga conference. I only signed up for Friday because it was quite expensive. As I looked around at the participants, I was struck by the homogeneity of the audience. Most participants were older, white and seemed of high socioeconomic class. The lobby was filled with vendors targeting this demographic- booths advertising expensive yoga vacations and selling overpriced yoga mats, crystals and zafus. I felt a certain uneasiness or self consciousness about the spiritual materialism, but was also trying not to be too judgmental.
When the program began, Jack Kornfield spoke about how anxious people are these days- politically and economically- economically got many nods from my fellow audience members. He even asked for a show of hands and I’d say 90% of hands were up. At that moment I felt a certain relief. I just returned to graduate school and I’m the poorest I’ve been in years, which is sometimes a struggle, but it also means I have nothing to loose and there’s a freedom in that. The woman sitting next to me was dressed quite ornately- expensive boots, handbag, lots of jewelry- the works. And through the ENTIRE talk she was constantly fiddling with her jewelry, which just seemed to be another reminder- more stuff=more distractions.
While it might be easy to attend an event like this and criticize the materialistic aspects, I also think that ultimately the more people being exposed to Buddhist thought, the better. Meditating on a $95 zafu is probably better than not meditating at all. But I left feeling grateful that I’m not burdened with economic worry…even if that means no yoga vacation in Costa Rica.