On Ideology and Mindfulness

Someone from a Buddhist group asked me to elaborate on the meaning of ideology. This is an important question. In contemporary politics, our thoughts are more governed by ideology than by the old-time religions. Perhaps we can say that ideology is the new religion. And ideology is dangerous, just as religion is dangerous. One’s ideology shapes what one sees as the highest good. The highest good is worthy to sacrifice to.

I would define “ideology” as a framework or structure through which one sees the world. There are, for example, a Christian ideology, a Muslim ideology, a Zionist ideology, a capitalist ideology and a Marxist theology. There is also a Buddhist ideology. When the Buddha talked about the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, ideology falls under the category called “mental objects”(dharma). In educational psychology and cognitive science, we use the term coined by Jean Piaget — “schema.” We see the world through the particular schema we adopted as valid. Piaget said that when there arises a fact or a piece of information which does not quite fit into one’s adopted schema, then one has a tendency to doctor or bend the fact so that it fits. People generally are very reluctant to modify their entire schema in light of new facts. It is too threatening. This accounts for the phenomenon of “facts don’t matter.” The human psyche has a way to modify the fact or reinterpret the schema so that…