Mindfulness: Does Achieving a Sustainable Lifestyle Require a Psycho-physiological Response As Much As Environmental, Economic and Technological Ones?

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The Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan adopts a happiness index as an indicator of national sustainability whereas in most western nations, we have a Pavlovian relationship to GDP/capita, even though many economists tell us this index does little to monitor genuine progress. As long as GDP/capita is rising, all is well, regardless of whether it is of the good kind that represents an advancement of human welfare, or of the bad kind that creates a loss of current or future welfare or else merely mitigates the results of what were, with hindsight, avoidable problems caused by flawed, self-destructive human behavior. With so many effective but underutilized on-the-shelf technologies metaphorically gathering dust that could tackle our unsustainable use of natural resources and degradation of ecological capital if employed earlier and in greater intensity, many sustainability advocates lament the gulf between our ability to innovate technically and our inability to evolve social and political institutions and behaviors that match. Through globalization, not only of the high material through-flow economic model but of a corresponding consumer culture seemingly hell-bent on satisfying non-material human needs though material means – “I shop therefore I am” – the impact of this gulf is widening as a growing population of affluent consumers supplied with relatively inefficient and damaging technologies exerts its effect globally. Recent studies in the cognitive sciences seem to suggest that the human mind and the result of its workings, both human behavior and the hard wiring of the human brain, might be important elements that could be contributing to this condition. Is mindfulness, defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “being purposefully aware” and a key element in non-materialist worldviews, capable of neuro-physiological changes that can facilitate adoption of a sustainable approach to life in its broadest sense? And, therefore, is the corollary thus true that the absence of mindfulness and its substitution with external, material means to satisfy the human “spirit” is a self-fueling and self-fulfilling cycle?

Stream: Cultural Sustainability, Social Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Michael Lee has 20 years of experience in the assessment, management and protection of natural resources. He has worked as a researcher, teacher and consultant in Central America, Africa, Europe and the United States and has traveled to over 30 nations. Since 1996, Dr. Lee has taught at the California State University where he specializes in the areas of sustainable development, natural resources management, water resources, and world geography. He has a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.Sc. from the University of Nottingham, both in Geography. He also has a certificate in online teaching and has taught in an online M.Sc. program for prospective educators. He has been a consultant on development projects for USAID, UNICEF, the World Bank, and various foundations and government agencies including the Department of Sustainability and Environment of the State of Victoria, Australia, concerning the development of a sustainable water strategy. He speaks and writes Spanish fluently, having taught at the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, Honduras, for over three years and has recently taken a special interest in Buddhist philosophies and their intersection with science and sustainability.