“Mindfulness Makes You a Way Better Lover”

Abstract

American self-help authors, coaches, and sexologists selectively adopt and apply Buddhist meditation techniques to meet their goals and sell products. This chapter draws upon books, articles, podcasts, TED talks, and other sources to demonstrate how these new applications of mindfulness are touted to enhance the sex act, delivering greater pleasure or effectively managing dysfunction. Key concepts include analysis of the economics involved in the appropriation of Buddhist practices, the role of gender in the “secular” use of meditation (almost all books recommend mindful sex for women, but few focus on men), the mixed Asian and Western frameworks for understanding the body and the meaning of sex, and the alternate uses to which elements of Buddhism may be put in different cultural settings. A specific genre of the use of meditation serves as a means to explore secular developments that draw upon Buddhist sources in a sometimes uneasy relationship.