I was confounded to discover that Mindfulness, a technique borrowed and Westernized from Buddhism is now being studied as a tool for having better sex instead of how it can help us to evolve as a human race.
What a disservice to Buddhism to talk about mindful sex. It is just an excuse to perpetuate our Western overly-obsessed with sex culture, to spread the idea of a cleaner type of pornography.
It is an usurpation of a two thousand and a half year old religion that was founded to help people live compassionate, healthy, spiritual and more refined lives, and not to find more meaning in titillation and sex, the development of our base attributes.
As a matter of fact if you live a descent, compassionate focussed life, great sex will be a side-effect, you don’t need to make it the focus of your world.
In the West sex has taken the place of love and human connection after being sold to people on the media as the elixir of happiness. This was due to the industrial revolution that perpetuated advertising as its medium. Sex sells. Love doesn't. People have been brain-washed into believing that after a hard day at the factory they should have spectacular sex as a reward. Sex and money have replaced God. The result is a wide spread culture of pornography and perverted sexuality, a dissatisfaction with your partner if they are having a bad day or gotten a little chubby after giving birth. In other words an act that was to enhance love, namely sex, has become a commodity for sale divorced from spirituality.
Now since sex is a bit worn out in the media, notice how love and spirituality is being used to sell tires for example by Canadian Tire, most recently. Children watching this will grow up being cynical about everything, even inner peace.
Nothing is sacred in our Industrial society and do we wonder why so much violence exists. PhDs in psychology grab onto the newest trends and write "scholarly" articles on how to use mindfulness to enhance your sex life. Again sex is divorced from human love and compassion in a responsible relationship.
I am very saddened by this trend because Mindfulness could potentially be an inroad trigger to the higher evolution of mankind, instead of being usurped for our present material existence. Like Yoga that was meant to help people evolve into a higher state of existence, it is now in the West a way to stay trim and happily egocentric.