Secular Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) Program E-Book

Hélène Hagege

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 591

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

An ethical solution to the current health, ecological and financial problems we face is to mobilize our responsibility by overcoming our duality with the environment. It calls for changes in attitudes and behaviors that are not self-evident and can be facilitated by specific learning. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) are increasingly used in professional settings, particularly in therapy, because their effectiveness in terms of change is increasingly supported by scientific evidence. This book presents a detailed program aimed at developing an ethics of responsibility known as Mindfulness- or MeditationBased Ethics of Responsibility (MBER). It combines theoretical explanations, exercises and secular meditations to propose (rather than impose) ethical guidelines, accompanying participants in identifying their own ethical values, acting in accordance with them, while weakening their dual functionings.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1. Session 1: Ethics and Meditation, Living in the Present Moment in Coherence with Our Values

1.1. Getting to know each other and adjusting expectations (0 min)

1.2. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (17 min)

1.3. Experiencing meditation with focused attention on breathing (20 min)

1.4. Understanding the purpose of the program (55 min)

1.5. Understanding one of the resources of the program: meditation (1 h 05 min)

1.6. Take a break (1 h 20 min)

1.7. Experiencing CSM (1 h 20 min)

1.8. Knowing our values and understanding how they relate to our lives (1 h 55 min)

1.9. Leaving with a training program to complete by the next session (2 h 50 min)

1.10. Having reading lists to progress certain points

1.11. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 57 min)

Chapter 2. Session 2: Reducing Stress to Consciously Develop Responsibility

2.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

2.2. Learning a mini-practice of attention regulation (2 min)

2.3. Providing a space for discussing the practices carried out since the last session (20 min)

2.4. Asking a question to collect initial conceptions and quoting the reflection (40 min)

2.5. Understanding the attitude to adopt in the face of guilt to promote an ethical approach (45 min)

2.6. Understanding stress regulation through the conscious sensory mode (1 h)

2.7. Practicing a sitting meditation to stabilize attention on a mental visual object and understanding the right attitude (1 h 07 min)

2.8. Taking a break (1 h 30 min)

2.9. Understanding one of the basic mechanisms of the dual functioning of the mind: grasping (1 h 30 min)

2.10. Understanding a link between mindfulness and responsibility (1 h 40 min)

2.11. Understanding the different types of reactions and responses to stress (1 h 50 min)

2.12. Learning a technique to practice CSM (mindfulness training): body and scanning (2 h 10 min)

2.13. Leaving with a training program to complete by the next session (2 h 53 min)

2.14. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 57 min)

Chapter 3. Session 3: From Dual Functioning to Wisdom, to Live Happily and Ethically

3.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

3.2. Practicing stabilizing attention on sounds (2 min)

3.3. Debrief on the practices carried out since the last session (35 min)

3.4. Learning to see our own projections in terms of judgment (45 min)

3.5. Understanding the impact of our thoughts on our lives (1 h 20 min)

3.6. Taking a break (1 h 30 min)

3.7. Understanding the role of attentional biases in dual functioning (1 h 30 min)

3.8. Transforming the tendency to judge (2 h 05 min)

3.9. Clarifying some vocabulary (2 h 30 min)

3.10. Learning a meditation to gather and let go quickly (2 h 35 min)

3.11. Having a panorama of dual functioning (2 h 40 min)

3.12. Understanding the link between duality and projection (2 h 50 min)

3.13. Leaving with a training program to complete by the next session (2 h 55 min)

3.14. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 58 min)

Chapter 4. Session 4: Changing Our Relationship to Thoughts and Expanding Our Consciousness

4.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

4.2. Meditating and perceiving the evanescent character of thoughts (2 min)

4.3. Debriefing on the practices carried out since the last session (30 min)

4.4. Understanding the possibilities of changing our relationship with thoughts (40 min)

4.5. Practicing the perception of erroneous thoughts (45 min)

4.6. Taking a break (1 h 30 min)

4.7. Taking thoughts as objects instead of being the object of thoughts (1 h 30 min)

4.8. Understanding the contribution of CBT and MBCT to this process (2 h)

4.9. Meditating to develop altruistic thinking: Tonglen practice (2 h 15 min)

4.10. Leaving with a training program to complete by the next session (2 h 55 min)

4.11. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 58 min)

Chapter 5. Session 5: Changing Our Relationship with Emotions to Develop Responsibility

5.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

5.2. Doing a short meditation to settle down at the beginning of the session (2 min)

5.3. Debriefing on the practices carried out since the last session (20 min)

5.4. Ridding ourselves of limiting beliefs about emotions (30 min)

5.5. Learning a model of different functional modalities of emotions (50 min)

5.6. Taking a break (1 h 20 min)

5.7. Learning to integrate emotions (1 h 20 min)

5.8. Sowing the seeds of future emotional exposure (2 h 35 min)

5.9. Doing practices labeled “pleasant” to “recover from emotions” (2 h 40 min)

5.10. Leaving with a training program to complete by the next session (2 h 53 min)

5.11. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 57 min)

Chapter 6. Session 6: Welcoming Ourselves with Kindness, So That We Can Do the Same with Others and Develop Joy, Authenticity and Creativity

6.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

6.2. Starting with a practice to settle down (2 min)

6.3. Debriefing on the practices carried out since the last session (15 min)

6.4. Experiencing conscious listening and authentic speech – practicing “

Primum non nocere

” (25 min)

6.5. Understanding the link between authenticity and ethics (1 h 05 min)

6.6. Practicing forgiveness to break free from authenticity barriers (1 h 10 min)

6.7. Taking a break (1 h 30 min)

6.8. Further equipping ourselves to better understand and open our mind: cross integration dreams (1 h 30 min)

6.9. Understanding the virtuous circle between joy, authenticity and ethics (2 h 20 min)

6.10. Trying another practice to strengthen this circle: joy meditation or acrostic (2 h 25 min)

6.11. Generating a commitment to deepen our ethical approach

6.12. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the session (2 h 57 min)

Chapter 7. Day of Silent Retreat: Taking Care of Ourselves in Order to Take Care of Others and the Non-human Environment

7.1. Setting an ethical intention at the beginning of the session (0 min)

7.2. Recap of the principle and interest of silence (2 min)

7.3. Meditation (10 min)

7.4. Dynamic practices in place, outside if the weather allows it (25 min)

7.5. Individual walking practice, preferably outdoors (1 h)

7.6. Short break, then relaxation inside to end the morning (2 h)

7.7. Lunch break (2 h 45 min)

7.8. Lightly energizing practices (4 h)

7.9. Meditation with stabilization of attention on a visual object (4 h 15 min)

7.10. Walking practice, preferably outdoors (4 h 30 min)

7.11. After a short break, a yoga nidra (5 h 15 min)

7.12. Breaking the silence to share experience (6 h 10 min)

7.13. Setting an ethical intention at the end of the day and sharing its ethical consequences (7 h)

Conclusion

References

Index

Other titles from iSTE in Innovations in Learning Sciences

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Conclusion

References

Index

Other titles from iSTE in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management

Wiley End User License Agreement

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Education Set

coordinated byAngela Barthes and Anne-Laure Le Guern

Volume 13

Secular Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) Program

Wise Intentions, Consciousness and Reflexivities

Hélène Hagège

First published 2022 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUK

www.iste.co.uk

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USA

www.wiley.com

© ISTE Ltd 2022The rights of Hélène Hagège to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s), contributor(s) or editor(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of ISTE Group.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022941077

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN 978-1-78630-381-3

Foreword

In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost.

DanteFirst Canto of The Divine Comedy

Beyond its timelessness, the introduction to Dante’s work particularly resonates at the beginning of the 21st century. The world in which we live seems particularly uncertain, even threatening: pandemic, climatic and migratory crises now constitute Dante’s dark wood. Our societies are increasingly multicultural and their reference points increasingly relative. “Our ways are many and our dwellings uncertain” (Anabasis, Saint-John Perse). This context weakens our sense of identity and questions the search for meaning. This is particularly relevant in the field of education and training, whose very purpose is to give us the tools to face these challenges.

The question raised is therefore one of ethics: what are the values that will guide our actions, and how do we arbitrate between conflicting values? What truly gives meaning to our lives and how can we behave in a way that is congruent with our values? There is therefore an urgency and a necessity to develop the tools that will allow us to answer these questions and meet these challenges.

Hélène Hagège takes up the challenge in this book. She presents a training program on the ethics of responsibility based on mindfulness and, more broadly, on a series of meditative and reflexive practices.

Mindfulness and, more generally, meditative techniques are currently enjoying great popularity. As early as 2014, they were featured on the cover of Time magazine in a special issue entitled “The Mindful Revolution”. These approaches generate expectations, often unrealistic, both among the public and among professionals. Effectiveness studies report, for example, mild to moderate benefits for depression and anxiety (Hofmann et al. 2010), far from the promises of a revolutionary therapy or change. They have also been accused of reducing problems with undeniable societal and political determinants to a matter of individual emotional regulation (Purser 2019) or promoting egocentrism (Poulin et al. 2021).

Hélène Hagège’s book responds to these criticisms because the training program she proposes, MBER (meditation-based ethics of responsibility), is firmly based on ethics and, in particular, on an ethic of the common good. Research by Poulin et al. (2021), for example, shows that mindfulness does increase egocentrism, but only in people with individualistic values or in whom such values have been initiated. The opposite effect is observed in people with collectivist values or in whom such values have been initiated. In this respect, the program proposed by Hélène Hagège touches on a crucial point by focusing on values that advocate harmony, not only with oneself, but also with others and with one’s environment.

The MBER program is not based exclusively on mindfulness practices. It also draws on other forms of meditative practice and from Buddhism, as well as maieutics, in the form of guided reflections on our own values and the consequences of our actions in relation to these values.

Such an approach obviously raises questions about the “intrusion” of spirituality into the field of education and training, especially in a French context where secularism is a cardinal virtue of the Republic. It is undeniable that the MBER program is partly inspired by Buddhist philosophy and practices, as well as by the author’s personal experiences (although it should be noted that this book also draws heavily on data from scientific psychology). In this context, it is particularly fortunate that the book opens with a singularly thorough analysis of the concept of secularism, its relationship to ethics, and the implications for teaching and training. The practices in the MBER program drawn from Buddhism are used here within a totally areligious framework, away from any religious dimension, and therefore constitute one of the secular means of nourishing and deepening ethical questioning. The basic approach is to promote reflexivity and to enable each person to make the most informed decisions regarding the values chosen to guide their actions.

In conclusion, this book offers a very practical and thorough manual on the philosophical and scientific fundamentals of the MBER program. It is very practical because it contains all the ingredients that will enable readers to pick up the program and implement it, provided they themselves have meditative experience and experience as trainers/teachers. The book is also full of useful testimonies and vignettes of dialogues between participants and trainer, which help to firmly visualize the dynamics of the exchanges during the sessions. The book is very thorough in its philosophical and scientific fundamentals and develops a detailed theoretical reflection at various levels. Indeed, the reader has the choice of either limiting their reading to a simple presentation of the theoretical principles underlying the various aspects of training, or developing their theoretical knowledge by reading the inserts that go into greater depth on the concepts. The book also makes numerous references to studies in psychology to explain and justify the proposed approaches.

More than a manual, this book is also an invitation to reflect on our values and on the determinants of our choices and actions. I hope you find it stimulating.

Pierre PHILIPPOTProfessor of Clinical PsychologyCatholic University of Louvain

Preface

In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, where the direct way was lost.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.

Quote attributed to Madeleine L’Engle

It is my hope that this work will, directly or indirectly, benefit all human beings and the rest of the universe.

Here follow a couple of remarks about the form of the manuscript.

In order to promote gender equality in thinking, this text uses inclusive writing. Also, certain passages that are potentially more difficult or more complex to read are indicated by a narrow line at the left margin. They can be skipped by the reader, without affecting the overall understanding, and are indicated by the heading “Theoretical depth”.

This book is intended to provide “lessons for life” (Morin 2014). The following written testimonies of students from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montpellier (young adults of about 20 years old) who have taken the MBER module1 suggest that this program can indeed contribute to this:

“I would say that I feel good; I feel my pain, I don’t try to make it go away. I would say that I have opened a door to something vast, that I have a lot to learn, that I have thrown some bottles into the sea. I live in the present moment with an ethical approach, for myself and towards other human beings and the planet. At least I try to.”

“This module was an important step in my personal development, and it allowed me to understand the major unconscious mechanisms of our mind and the way to be conscious of them and thus to free ourselves from them. It also allowed me to understand the importance of living our emotions to experience authentic joy and not to take refuge in distractions.”

“As well as my relationship with myself, I have learned to improve my relationship with others. Not to put myself on automatic pilot, but to really listen to a person when they speak, to listen consciously so that I can answer their questions truthfully and without using pre-determined phrases. When arguing, to not let your ego get the better of you, but stay aware of what you are saying. Also, I learned a very important thing, that happiness is not found in material and immaterial external things, but that the fact of loving ourselves, of being joyful, and not doing things according to the expectations of others, or according to our own sometimes utopian and false convictions, leads us to a real happiness and not as we imagine it by daydreaming. [...] Thank you for having made me discover not a subject but a way of living and blossoming with the world, but especially with myself.”

“Because of all this, I think this module goes way beyond my expectations of just knowing how to manage my stress, because now I find that I act with much more kindness than I would have towards others or myself.”

“During the two months that I followed the module, I noticed a real change in my way of being and seeing things, this change was so significant that my friends and family even spoke to me about it. Before I started meditation, I was a young man who was a little lost in his direction, disgusted with the world. I was always looking for confrontation and I felt I could only exist through a power struggle. [...] I really feel different from the person I was when I started school in September: I am calmer, and I am no longer looking for confrontation at all costs. I feel happier or at least more fulfilled. […] I left my political group because I realized that my vision of a better world could not be achieved through violence. I think we need to set an example, to act with others as we would want them to act with us, because we are always someone’s ‘other’.”

I would like to thank all the students for their words and encouraging feedback, which gave me an overview of the subjective effects of the MBER program and confidence that it was worth continuing to work on it. Some students and colleagues have made criticisms: I most particularly thank here Frédéric for the discussions and both Pierre and Philippe for their careful proofreading of a preliminary version of this book; this has allowed me to improve the program, sometimes by modifying its content or refining its justifications. More generally, difficulties and obstacles in this journey, and beside it, have been precious resources for me to grow. I also feel grateful towards all colleagues who opened the doors to integrate this program into college curricula and who more generally trusted me or helped me in one way or another in this adventure. Of course, my thoughts here go to my loved ones too, most particularly Aurélien and Isaak, who have supported and still tolerate the unavailability generated by this endless work, this path to which I feel committed, which for now leads to applying, developing and teaching the MBER program, as well as doing research and writing on it, the present book being a significant step in this process.

August 2022

Note

1

All the testimonies presented in this book are of this same origin. They were not anonymous at the outset and are therefore particularly susceptible to social desirability bias. That said, they are the authentic words of students who have been through the program and thus reflect, in one way or another, their thoughts about their own experiences with the MBER program.