The Nature of »Mindfulness« in »Soul (2020)« and its Relationship with the »Presence of the Heart« in Islamic Mysticism

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Islam and Spirituality Studies, Research Center for Ethics and Spirituality, Islamic Sciences and Culture Academy, Qom, Iran.

10.22081/jsr.2024.68579.1079

Abstract

Living in the present and living at the moment have turned into goals of today's man. These goals are also used with the "mindfulness" technique, which originated from Buddhist teachings, in therapy, career success, and finding meaning in life. The question of this article is that, is this experience an enlightening experience and can it bring moral and spiritual growth for a person? In addition, does this experience, like similar experiences in Islamic mysticism (for example, the experience of the presence of the heart) take place in interaction with God and with the assumption of His presence, or is it only a matter of the mind and does not have a theological meaning? To deal with this issue, the present article starts a case study and through the method of qualitative content analysis, it analyzes the animation called soul, whose main message is "mindfulness" for finding meaning, and then with the help of the topics of mystical philosophy, especially the views of Richard Jones, analyzes this type of mindfulness and tries to answer the questions of the discussion. The finding of the present article suggests that "mindfulness" in the spirituality of the new age, which is also depicted in this animation, does not have a theological content. In addition, it does not bring cognitive and moral achievements and only brings good mood which is caused by reducing the mental sensitivity towards the past and future.

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