What’s the concept of social mindfulness? How can mindfulness improve society and fix global problems?
In Why Buddhism Is True, Robert Wright contends that mindfulness meditation could help bring about a “metacognitive revolution.” He believes this is necessary for humanity to overcome major global challenges, like war and climate change.
If you want to make the world a better place, read below to learn how to help with mindfulness.
Mindfulness Can Change Our Shared Future
Wright’s choice of the phrase “metacognitive revolution” is telling. While “metacognition” simply refers to our ability to observe and understand our thought processes, his use of “revolution” frames meditation as something more transformative than just a personal practice. Revolutions are radical—for instance, both the Industrial and Digital Revolutions fundamentally changed how society operates. By using this phrasing, then, Wright suggests that widespread mindfulness practice could broadly reorganize society. Such a change would involve not just individual growth and maturation, but also the transformation of global society.
By teaching us to observe our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them, social mindfulness helps us see beyond our knee-jerk reactions, biases, and prejudices. Seeing things more clearly, we can then respond thoughtfully, rather than react impulsively, when involved in disagreements or conflicts along “tribal” lines.
For instance, imagine that a climate change activist and a climate change skeptic have a dialogue in which both practice being mindful of their reactionary feelings. In doing so, they could share their fears, desires, and motivations, and thereby have a productive exchange, rather than simply berating one another over their differences.
Wright acknowledges that mindfulness alone won’t fix everything, but he sees it as a necessary part of overcoming humanity’s major struggles and connecting the global human community. One individual, group, and network at a time, he says, people can become less reactive, more empathetic, and more aware of our interconnectedness. In time, the widespread adoption of mindfulness could help us tackle complex, hot-button global issues more skillfully, wisely, and compassionately.
| Could Mindfulness Really Transform the World? Wright’s vision of mindfulness as a catalyst for social transformation echoes the views of influential thinkers like Thích Nhất Hạnh, who developed “engaged Buddhism” during the Vietnam War. Like Wright, Nhất Hạnh argues in books like Being Peace that mindfulness could overcome social conflicts by helping people recognize their shared humanity. Similarly, Tara Brach’s idea of radical acceptance could serve as a pathway to both personal and societal healing. Some practices, like empathy circling, already use mindfulness to help handle social conflicts. In an empathy circle, participants practice deep listening and moment-to-moment awareness while reflecting back others’ perspectives. These structured conversations create spaces where people can notice their reactive thoughts and emotions while genuinely hearing different viewpoints. The practice has been used to facilitate discussions between groups with opposing political views, such as pro-life and pro-choice groups. However, the path from individual transformation to collective change may not be straightforward. Critics like Ronald Purser argue that an excessive focus on individual mindfulness can actually deflect attention from necessary structural reforms. In McMindfulness, he warns that by framing social problems as issues of personal awareness, we risk privatizing stress and responsibility while leaving the problems’ systemic causes unaddressed. This suggests that mindfulness might be better viewed as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, other forms of social action and institutional change. |
