From birth we're conditioned to act in ways that please our parents, families, then friends, teachers, then bosses, co-workers, and the rest of society. Whether we did or did not accomplish an act is clear, easily judged. How well we did it is much more difficult to judge, and is somewhat subjective. Our attitude & intentions while accomplishing the act are very difficult for someone else to judge.
So based on a lifetime of conditioning, many of us live our lives tightly governed by external approval of our actions. We become compulsive doers, "overachievers", "terribly busy", to the detriment of our attitudes, intentions, emotions - our inner life.
Many of us literally fear peace, quiet, tranquility, stillness, self-reflection, meditation etc assuming that these might somehow competitively inhibit our ability to act (loss of external approval). We become anxious when we have even a bit of free, unstructured "down time".
Indeed a part of us (brain stem) is conditioned to react with an approach-avoidance reflex to (societal & other) stimuli. However, the most highly evolved part of our brain (prefrontal cortex) is the seat of our executive function, mature judgment, meaning, values, attitude, intentions, quality (vs quantity), long-term goals ... our vitally critical inner life that should be directing our outer life.
Civilized mature human beings should be intentionally cultivating their ability to operate with their FULL mental / human capacity. Meditation is an important means of achieving this for oneself. Universities must assume leadership to ensure their graduates are WISE, not simply reacting to societal pressures via primitive reflexes.
With Dr. Craig Hassed's leadership, Australia's "Monash University is a world leader in mindfulness programs. (They)
currently offer a number of mindfulness programs designed to enhance the
experience of both students and staff. (They)
are working towards embedding
mindfulness in the core curriculum by 2015 so that all Monash students
will have the opportunity to learn mindfulness." http://monash.edu/counselling/mindfulness.html
"Contemplation is a third way of knowing – a missing link –
that complements & enhances the rational & sensory. The contemplative
mind is opened and activated through a wide range of approaches – from
pondering to poetry to meditation – that are designed to shift states of mind
in order to cultivate such capacities as deepened awareness, concentration and
insight. Historically, the contemplative has been used throughout the wisdom
traditions as fundamental for developing interiority and understanding the most
essential knowledge, yet it is almost entirely absent from contemporary
education."
Hart T. From information to transformation. Education for the evolution of consciousness. Peter Lang Publishing, NY, 2009.
See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2013/06/empathy-basic-human-competence.html
