Meditative Society

At the end of his lecture to the graduate psychology class, Professor Al Bloom said, “Several of you have helped with the research on how meditative practices affect personality. Your contributions are deeply appreciated. I’m about to write a journal article on the results. We found that meditating on wishing people well increases empathy, while focusing on the breath, mindfulness and unfocused awareness all give people greater equanimity, and unfocused awareness increases creativity. The scores for these personality traits increased dramatically. There are possibilities for using these practices for social conditioning. That is it for today. Have a great weekend.”

After the class, as he walked down the gray corridor to his gray office, Professor Bloom thought of how nice it would be to go out to dinner that evening with his wife, who was the principal at a private high school, and his son and daughter, both in their late teens. But when he stepped through the door everything around him had changed. He was suddenly in a brilliantly white empty room that smelled of lavender, and he was facing a white bearded man with a shaved or bald head, wearing toga like clothes.

“Welcome, Professor Bloom. We are in the world one thousand years from where you were. Your research started a chain reaction that led to the society we have now. Many of us wanted to meet you and show you the final results that started with your research. It’s nothing short of miraculous.”

Professor Bloom frowned in confusion, and thought to himself, “Am I hallucinating?”

A door slid open and several young people, young men in suits and ties, young women in skirt suits, came in with electronic tablets. Their grooming was like that of business people at the turn of the twenty-first century.

A young man with short curly black hair and dark skin handed the professor his tablet and a stylus. “Could I have your autograph, professor? We are excited that you are here. We’re dressed like people in your time, aren’t we?”

Professor Bloom, still frowning in confusion, initialed the tablet with the stylus and gave it back.

“Thank you! You’re my hero!”

A young woman with long blond hair handed him her tablet and stylus. “You don’t know what you started, do you? The world is now one egalitarian society. There is no war or poverty. Everyone works on what interests them, or serves where needed, and we’ve solved the problems of ecology and natural resources, all by using the meditations you researched for social conditioning.”

Professor Bloom’s mouth dropped as he initialed that tablet. He stared at the tablet before he handed it back and said, “But the meditations I researched had existed thousands of years before me. Didn’t you want to meet the Buddha instead of me?”

An Asian looking young man came up to him next. “The meditations were used only within religious communities. They were practiced with no practical societal goal. After your research, they were used more and more to change individuals to make everyone more helpful to society.”

Professor Bloom nodded thoughtfully. He had thought meditations would be gentle ways to socially condition people to be well adjusted and helpful, but he never in his wildest dreams thought that they would significantly change the nature of society.

He continued initializing the tablets with the styluses, but he thought to himself, “Where did these delusions of grandeur come from? What made me break from reality? I’ve made a point of having a good work/life balance. I’ve taken care of my health…”

The older man came to Professor Bloom’s side. “Now that you have your autographs, you all should be getting back to your studies. I will give our newcomer a tour.”

Turning to Professor Bloom, he said, “My name is Tyrone. Time travel is a new technology, and we are deciding how and if it should be used. These decisions take a long time to make. Anybody who is interested in the outcome takes part in the conversation, and everyone concerned has to come to a general agreement before anything is done. A lot of people are enthusiastic about having you in our society. I’ll try to introduce you to as many of them as I can as soon as possible. How do you feel about that?”

“To tell you the truth, I find it embarrassing. I did a limited study. Any change to society as a whole would take something more than I did.”

“Oh. I don’t want you to be embarrassed. Often we don’t see the end results of our actions, and we would like to show you what you started.”

Tyrone started walking toward the doorway and motioned to Professor Bloom to go with him. The corridor they were walking in was bright white like the room they had just left. “This is a rather typical office building and learning center. You’ll see that there are different rooms for different functions and rooms for meditation and exercise are interspersed with work and study rooms. Everyone has recommended regimes for meditation and exercise, depending on their personalities, aspirations and physical needs.”

There were drawers in the walls. Tyrone opened one of the drawers, pushed some buttons, and pulled out a tablet with a stylus like the ones Professor Bloom had initialed for the young people.

Tyrone handed Professor Bloom the tablet. “This is yours. It has your recommended meditation and exercise regimens. You can also use it to find out anything in the world. It is an iteration of the internet that society in your time had.”

Professor Bloom put up his hand in refusal. “I don’t practice meditation. It is an academic subject to me. And I work with a personal trainer three times a week, so I don’t need exercise directions.”

“But you are here now, and this is the way we do things. If you like, you can get coaching in any of the meditation and exercise rooms.”

Tyrone pressed the tablet on Professor Bloom, who acquiesced. They stepped onto an elevator. The floor they went to was plush and dimly lit. It smelled faintly of honeysuckle.

Tyrone made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “Take any seat you like and make yourself comfortable. We’ve planned a flight tour to explain how our history was started with your research and journal article.”

Professor Bloom sighed and sat down in the easy chair nearest to him. He felt like he was in a cloud. There was darkness, and then he saw that he was in a flight machine for one.

A soothing deep voice asked, “To start off, do you have any questions about our time?”

Professor Bloom frowned and shook his head.

The voice said, “Most people are happy with this society. The people who aren’t work on improving it. Compared to how things were in your time, it is a utopia. People think differently and respond differently to what happens to and around them. This is because of the use of the meditation practices you researched as well as some other practices you weren’t aware of, such as contemplation of sickness, mortality and impermanence. Everybody has a meditation and physical exercise schedule, unless they are incapable of it.”

Professor Bloom had the experience of flying close to the ground through a clean city with lovely architecture and many parks. Some people were resting in the parks. Others looked liked they had places to go. There were restaurants, and Professor Bloom could smell the food.

The voice over said, “If you’re hungry, you can try the food at any of the restaurants. There is no payment system. Everything is shared. The people who cook love cooking. The people who serve the food generally like to socialize, so it is a different experience eating out than it was in your time.”

Professor Bloom said, “Uh, I’m planning to go out to dinner with my family this evening.”

“As you like. The foods are exquisite, though, and eating out is a wonderful social experience, with the servers, the other people eating, and sometimes the chefs coming out to join the conversations.”

“I think I’ll pass, thank you. I don’t have much time.”

“You’ll see that there is no poverty in our cities. There is also no crime or war. We haven’t eliminated sickness and death, but have made them as comfortable and as integrated with society as possible. Since everybody contemplates sickness, old age and death, and impermanence in general, we are prepared to face these things in ourselves and others.”

“How can you attribute all the changes to meditation practices?”

“There is a clear correspondence of cause and effect. I think you’ll be interested in the fact that we consider our economy to be a reformed capitalism. All basic needs are met and higher education is open to all. If someone fails in their education, they can repeat courses as many times as needed. There are personal advantages to all kinds of achievements. People choose what they want to do. There are different lifestyles depending on what a person does and achieves. Healthcare is also available to all.”

The idea of a completely new kind of society based on a new kind of psychology piqued the professor’s curiosity. He considered the possibility of a critical mass practicing these meditations in his own time and the society becoming like this one. He was also hungry.

“I’d like to try one of the restaurants, whichever is best recommended.”

Once the professor got interested in the society, he went along with his hosts without question. Professor Bloom enjoyed luxurious foods, sleeping quarters, and recreation. He tried out meditation practices himself for the first time. His meditation regimen included several ten minute sessions since he wasn’t accustomed to meditation. The recommended exercise regimen included water skiing on a lake, racquetball, and swimming laps in a large swimming pool, all of which he enjoyed. His hosts guessed when he would be hungry or tired and arranged for his needs. His senses were always gratified and he had no sense of time.

At some point, even this new situation began to get old. He was still embarrassed by the attention he received for his research. He didn’t have any deep, heartfelt conversations, as everything was so new to him and he was being idolized. He missed his wife and kids, friends, and colleagues at the university.

Professor Bloom asked several people when he would return to his own time, but the answers were evasive. He felt trapped. He realized he had been in the future society for several days, maybe weeks, and he feared that his life at home was over. He lost his appetite and stopped sleeping well. Professor Bloom was so restless and uncomfortable during meditation that he wondered how he found so many volunteers willing to do these practices for his study. He resented being shown around and shown off, but felt he had to hide his true feelings because of what might be behind the polite veneer.

One morning, a young man bringing him breakfast found the professor in his room crying. The young man asked what was upsetting the professor, and he admitted he was homesick.

“Oh! We don’t want you to be unhappy! I can understand that. People here have families and form bonds of friendship. We always mourn when we lose loved ones. Not to mention we have likes and dislikes. As Dogen said, ‘In attachment, blossoms fall. In aversion, weeds grow.’ We should have been sensitive of that for you. Just sit on your bed. I’ll report this and we’ll get you back to your own time.”

The professor found himself sitting in his office, and it was just ten minutes later than when he had left. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the journal article he had started writing. For years he had been obsessed with meditation without actually practicing it, but at this point he found that he was no longer at all interested in meditation. It took willpower to complete the article, but it was published in a respected journal and cited in many later professional journal articles. Meditation practices became a popular area of academic study. Professor Bloom took early retirement to spend more time with family and friends and thought as little about meditation as he could.