About this episode

Pierce Salguero discusses the psychological and physical risks associated with Buddhist meditation practices as outlined in his new book.

Pierce Salguero joins us to discuss his new co-edited volume, Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice. While modern mindfulness frames meditation purely as a wellness tool, the Buddhist tradition has long recognized its inherent psychological and physical risks. We explore multi-tradition historical texts, the anatomy of practice crises, and the ethical responsibility of teachers and app developers to provide something along the lines of informed consent. Key Discussion Points & Timeline Contrasting modern wellness marketing with historical accounts of meditative danger; the book provides a sourcebook for Dharma teachers, clinicians, and serious practitioners. Multi-Tradition Mapping throughout covers Pali, medieval Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan sources, many of which we touch on. Traditional sources diagnose destabilization and even offer a range of physical, energetic, and lifestyle remedies to mediate crisis: whether they would be a good fit for today’s practitioner is another matter. Challenging the modern claim that adverse effects only happen to the unprepared or mentally fragile. Classical lineages show that severe physical ailments and…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Pierce Salguero

Topics covered

• meditation risks
• Buddhist practice
• wellness marketing
• historical texts
• ethical responsibility
• mental health
• cultural perspectives

Keywords

• meditation sickness
• Buddhism
• mindfulness
• psychological risks
• physical risks
• Dharma teachers
• meditative danger
• ethical duty
• commercialized meditation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Buddhist tradition, Dharma, meditation apps

Books & works: Meditation Sickness: A Sourcebook on the Dangers of Buddhist Practice

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