What's wrong with mindfulness (and what isn't) : Zen perspectives /

Editors Rosenbaum (Walking the Way) and Magid (Nothing Is Hidden) put forth this opening salvo: "Now, it is mindfulness's turn to be appropriated by Western culture as a philosopher's stone." As they see it, the concept of mindfulness has become so nonspecific as to be meaningless. This essay collection seeks to remedy that, assembling various Zen teachers who speak to the commercialized, somewhat corrupting influence of Western sensibilities upon this ancient Theravadan, Vipassanan, and Zen practice. Some essays are more successful than others, but all present a sincere desire to free the concept of mindfulness from its New Agey, self-transformative, goal-oriented perspective and return it to its essence, which is "effort without desire." This is the heart of the work: the ordinary awareness of doing nothing and being nothing while paradoxically being present in all things, at all times, to all persons. VERDICT A thoughtful breath of fresh air on a sorely misappropriated concept.-SC © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.