MANIFESTO FOR A MINDFUL SOCIETY
by
The S’asseoir Ensemble (“Sitting Together”) collective
An unique citizens’ movement
Table of Contents
1.Introduction2
2.What is mindfulness? What does it offer everyday life? 4
3.Non-profit and secular5
4.Why street actions are important6
5.Meditation is commitment to something better9
6.Letting go of competitiveness: Sitting Together in early education11
7.Sitting together, a political movement13
1. Introduction
Flash back to May 2016, on a social network. We were at the height of “Nuit Debout” (literally “Night Standing,” a French social protest against proposed labor reforms in 2016), where many were hoping to find a new space for sharing and exchanging ideas. It was also just after the terrible Paris attacks that had traumatized the country. Those events had caused a number of citizens to question how we live together, our very approach to life and society. Some of us eagerly began to chat on the net.
When one of us shared a film on a meditation street action in the U.S., our discussion group responded emphatically. The images were exciting, and resonated with our own practices and the questions we’d been asking. Someone in the group wrote:
“What if we spontaneously suggested that everybody sit down during the day and take a moment, at no cost?”
That was how our passion was born, and how it then snowballed in France and elsewhere. We each got it in our heads to grow this seed of an idea. We discussed and shared enthusiastically. New people came along, some drifted away, as in life. It was at times hard to maintain course and not get sidetracked by offshoots, no matter how tempting, that could risk losing the simple beauty and purity of our initial impulse. All these contributions evolved into the movement “Sitting Together.”
“Sitting Together” is a collective vision that advocates being together, simply, without necessarily acting, but being in the moment.
This movement finds context in counter-current to a society where it is easier to fill up, to munch, to smoke, to drink – any time someone feels uncomfortable with themselves or others.
Initially it was a collective thumbing of our noses at the “doing society.” Along the way, however, this outburst of expression became deeper.
A number of questions that underlie this manifesto came to the fore: define mindfulness for sitting together, etc.
Sitting Together is an individual and collective position of mindfulness of the self and others, a source for a number of advantages that this manifesto seeks to declare and share.
In the city, and more generally society, we are confronted with chaos and an unceasing flow of people and information. What is preventing us from slowing down, catching our breath, taking a moment, if only for a few seconds, maybe minutes? Just because we need to – to feel our being, to breathe or just to feel.
“On the stairs of the Opera House, despite the crowd, I had the sense of creating a bubble for myself.”
“I was surprised by passersby who said ‘I don’t have time to sit down with you,’ when ultimately, you just have to take it… the time.”
Sitting Together is the possibility of being authentic and living in reality, simply by being there.
Our society of images and consumption pushes us to tell stories about ourselves and others, or to construct these certain positions. Caught by these mechanisms, some of us err into past ruminations and future anxieties, forgetting to live in the present. Others crash ahead, losing awareness of others, of the collective all of us, of different perspectives from our own that surround us.
Sitting Together is not an ideology. It’s an opportunity to return to a pragmatic reality. It’s a breath for regaining awareness of what is, and who is around us. This attitude offers peace and serenity. It allows us to escape from a spiral of stress, and instead reintegrate our uniqueness within a whole.
“I very quickly felt alive in this experience of sitting together. I felt an immense creative potential in this position.”
“I perceived the city differently. I felt sensorial stimulations that were unfamiliar in the urban environment.
We soon realized that implementing our vision would not be easy. First of all, because each of us had their own vision of this project.
We had to abandon our discourse and our tendency to self-centeredness in order to maintain the authenticity and virtues of sitting together.
Sitting together in the city is not a simple project. We can take a cigarette break, grab a drink, have a bite together or even be a homeless person, but we were systematically ordered to scram every time we simply wanted to sit together. Is that surprising?
Sitting Together promotes spontaneous and collective mindfulness. Each individual is free to meditate in their fashion or simply to be there. It is simply about a space of freedom.
2. What is mindfulness? What can it offer everyday life?
Mindfulness is a deliberate attitude of curiosity about present experience, without judgment.
Mindful meditation allows us to train ourselves for this mode of being and of attention in the world. It has lasting, scientifically proven effects on the brain, after only 8 weeks of practice.
Meditation allows us to adjust the mechanisms that contribute to stress, anxiety and “negative” emotions. They lead to a spirit of “stepping back” from negative or catastrophic thinking related to past events or in flawed anticipation of the future.
Meditation renders us more joyful, lucid, attentive and flexible. All this has been broadly proven by science.
A reduction in incidences of depression (fewer relapses), Improvement of prognosis for auto-immune illness, Reduction of excessive blood pressure, Recovery of resting metabolism, Reduction of cerebral ageing: all are scientifically proven benefits of meditation.Members of Parliament that joined together around the article “A Mindful Nation, UK” recommend mindful meditation for reducing public health costs. They also recommend it in the legal arena and in the field of education. From early education? Yes, because mindful meditation also reduces incidents of aggression and violence, facilitates learning and increases motivation.
How does Mindful Meditation work?
Meditation encourages “defusing” of our automatic mental mechanisms. It allows us to feel bodily signals and to develop a more pragmatic mode of thinking.Observing the flow of thoughts and feelings as “mind objects” allows for better regulation of attention and emotion.The explicit goal of mindfulness is not to bring about a state of relaxation. Nevertheless, the practice of mindfulness can lead to a state similar to relaxation, because the ability to cease wanting to change everything does in fact help us to unwind.
Observing, with curiosity but without a will to modify or avoid different aspects of how our experience is deployed (thoughts, emotions, sensations) and cultivating a voluntary reengagement of attention on the specific empirical aspects of emotional experience is at the heart of this practice.
“We have to cultivate active acceptance in experiencing the present moment, whatever it may be.”
It’s both simple and difficult at once, since our natural tendency is to think of the past or the future, to insist on a linear relationship with time. It thus requires practice.
3. Non-profit and secular
We live in a society of production, of paradox, of multi-tasking, of regret, of greed, of worry, and consequently of burn-out. Meditation becomes a necessary response, a method for learning to know oneself with gentleness and consideration. We cultivate these qualities of tolerance, non-judgment, openness and compassion.
To offer people the possibility of cultivating presence, of taking a moment, of stopping in order to have a different connection to oneself and others.
That is what Sitting Together offers within society.
“Today people are always judging, opposing. We are surrounded by conflicts and wars. From a neurological standpoint, we know that as soon as somebody is not part of the group, there is an impulse to exclude. Creating a group with the sole purpose of sitting together is a way to create a group without boundaries or borders.”
The movement seeks to appeal to and encourage us to practice something that could be beneficial to society.
If there was any hint of individual or commercial profit, that would mean that someone was trying to profit from the movement, and take advantage of society. This is the polar opposite of the values we seek to promote.
We are so inundated with advertising, commercials, incitements to consume, that it is imperative that we build trust and disinterested commitment. We see our political system in crisis, which has led to increased distrust, the cynical disinclination to believe any claims or promises to do good to others or for society. It’s only natural that people will be wary of a new movement, suspecting hidden motives, possibly a scam or a cult.
This is one of the goals of Sitting Together: to reinstill confidence and belief in collective action.
Moreover, Sitting Together sees an obligation to be secular. It is essential that his movement suit and accept everyone, whatever their cultural origins or religious inclinations. Furthermore, Sitting Together is just one idea among many, and does not claim to have the best vision or offer a single universal truth. The movement seeks to provide a space and to create the circumstances in which everyone can sample what they want, without coercion or constraints.
“It is not an ideology, but an offering of possibility.”
4. Why street actions are important
“Creating a bubble for myself. On the steps of the Opera House amidst the hectic noise of traffic. What I liked most was the realization that we can all allow ourselves 5 minutes out of the day. This is the perfect opportunity to remember that.”
Sitting in the street is not easy
If anyone is wondering why we want to meditate outside, why not keep it an intimate matter in the private domain, we would answer this:
Mindful meditation was not conceived as an individual activity, but as an ethical move aiming to waken one’s conscience to interdependence.
Altruism and compassion are not poses we seek to adopt, but rather the natural result of a cured mind, one that no longer feels fear, hatred or jealousy. In that light, mindful mediation outdoors is an important means to train the mind. Moreover, those who have already experienced the benefits of meditation through frequent application know that it is one of the loveliest, easiest and least costly solutions for conflict. Among the incarcerated, for instance, the practice of meditation has proven to yield a significant reduction in violence. Certain countries, such as Thailand, India or Japan, have meditation well-integrated within their societies’ cultures and rituals. In this case, it’s a Confucian philosophy to instill beneficent communal living.
Sitting together thus seeks to be a voluntarily activist movement so that the West too can find a political space, a pivotal space for relations and the peaceful resolution of conflicts resulting from agitated, frightened thinking.
This activism makes an appeal by offering a concrete, pragmatic and immediate solution.
What’s unique about mindful meditation is that it helps us to focus our attention more deeply within ourselves, but also to connect us to others in a spirit of consideration. Both within and without are no longer our enemies; rather, we learn to fuse them in the subtlety and nuance of a complex, integrated thought process.
Faced with the immense potential of this ancient practice that can transform us and our society by reducing violent or aggressive impulses, it seems more and more a likely remedy to society’s ills, more powerful than any political platform.
Meditation teaches us not to reject anything, and to use all of our life forces so tht each new step forward is taken with respect for all and neglect for no one. Thus, it is fundamentally a movement of fellowship, which seeks to eliminate racism, osetracism and the excessivem needless consumption that is damaging our planet.
Thus have a few of us crossed that threshold to sit down in the street, as a living manifesto, announcing the advent of unexplored possibilities:
And if the people allowed themselves a moment of silence and room to breathe in public spaces, if they dared to embrace the humility and simplicity of examining within themselves their suffering, scars, battles and fears, rather than to throw these in the faces of others, creating stress, burn-out, hatred, withdrawal and sometimes even drug abuse as a palliative?
Why is this simple gesture, so essential and authentic, free of cost and without selfish purpose, so appealing to us? Because it is ordinary, it brings us back to earth and allows us to discover that we are all brothers and sisters, that we are not in competition, and if we simply listen to and help one another we can cohabitate in peace.
Thus, sitting in the street leads us to:
- put ourselves in a position of humility.
- invite and sensitize other passersby, creating a physical space that both allows and protects meditation without asking for anything else in return, or any commitment: you sit, you meditate and you go on your way.
- provoke a collective event: being together is difficult! This is an experience that challenges our habits
- create an artistic and esthetically pleasing happening: the beauty of people seated in meditation draws us into a contemplation of what it means to be human, simply and without agitation
- learn to be together: the organization of each event is a challenge
Simultaneous Universal Connection
The principle here is focused on the emergence of a whole from scattered pieces – events organized simultaneously in different spots on the planet. This will generate a sense of being intensely “alive,” with oneself and with others at the same time, across the universe. That in turn creates a sense of being connected, centered and at peace, and of rediscovering inner strength. Knowing that this doesn’t belong exclusively to us, wanting to embody the universality of this practice beyond boundaries and borders. A number of applications already allow us to see just who is meditating throughout the world.
Fellowship and piece deployed against all war…
Example:
“Why did I want to get involved with founding Sitting Together (SAE) Dijon? I already knew how much meditation had changed my life for the better, towards a sense of well-being. I was convinced that these ancient practices passed down from four corners of the world over centuries were a gift to humanity.
It is essential in our lives today to nourish ourselves with what inspires us, rather than remain blinded in an atmosphere of commercial competition and oblivious over-consumption, both of which are damaging the earth’s ecology and resources.
Nourishing myself better at every level (body, soul, mind) and with mindfulness was an essential resolution in my life, and SAE is a key ingredient, the fruit of that same tree, tended with little joys that have made me a happy person.”
5. Meditation Means Involvement
Kelly Wilson is the American psychologist behind ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy)[1] <#_ftn1> . He has placed a focus on the notion of values as a factor motivating involvement and commitment.
Wilson always begins treatment by sharing his history. Three of his brothers have died. He himself was a drug addict and dealer as a young man, spending times in squalid, dangerous neighborhoods. One day, however, he decided that life wasn’t for him, and he made a series of decisions to correct his life course around what was important for him and his family. Through this sharing, Wilson tries to prove that whatever our vulnerability may be, it is always possible to make the choice to take care of oneself. He suggests that if he, despite his background, had found the courage to discover the kind of person he wanted to be, anyone could. It’s merely a question of choices, commitment and courage.
Our being is like a garden. Depending on the seeds we sow, and the manner in which we tend them, all outcomes are possible. Kelly Wilson asks us the critical question: What values do we want to plant? And what actions are we willing to take to push our lives in that direction?
Our behavioral commitment can be derailed by the steady stream of unconscious thoughts that continually barrage our brains, like birds that soar into the infinite sky of our thinking: “impossible, always, never, etc.”
We can’t prevent those birds from crossing in the sky nor tune out their cawing. We are not, however, obliged to follow them. We can simply acknowledge that they are there, give them a respectful nod and retrain our gaze towards the garden we are cultivating.
This is what mindful meditation training offers.
According to Kelley Wilson, there are eight techniques that enable us to take care of ourselves and maintain a worthwhile life:
1)Move your body: Resist sedentarism, be in motion.
2)Eat food that has not been treated: beware of industrially-produced food, which causes obesity and depression.
3)Allow yourself proper sleep: many psychological disturbances can be traced back to lack of sleep
4)Cultivate your social network: the main factor that affects our ageing and lifespan is the quality of our social connections.
5)Cultivate mindfulness in our daily living: take the time to be really there, doing what you are doing in the moment.