Craig Hassed: Bringing together mindfulness and critical thinking

I normally say, “I do a bit of teaching at Monash University and give a few talks here and there.” If they are interested to know what I teach generally I say, “I mostly teach in the Medical and Arts Faculties and I have strong interests in mindfulness and lifestyle medicine.” If they are really interested to know more then I tell them about the work of the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies (M3CS).

I have two books by the bedside at the moment. One is I Am That which involves transcripts of conversations between the 20th Century Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and the spiritual aspirants who came to ask him questions. The other is Secrets of the Knights Templar by S.J. Hodge which goes into the origins, phenomenal growth, and eventual persecution and extinction of this fascinating and unique order of warrior monks.

I didn’t enjoy reading and avoided it at all costs when I was a child, especially fiction. If I did read a book, then it was along the lines of the How and Why books which were all about nature and science and explaining how they worked.

When I was growing up, I was interested in lots of things but fixated about no one thing. Early on I thought being a writer might be good, then perhaps a teacher, or perhaps philosophy, or psychology. When I finally had to decide on a course at the age of 17, I knew I was interested in the mind and I wanted to help people so I went into medicine as a starting point. As it has turned out, I have wound up on a career path that has allowed me to do all the things I was interested in.

I didn’t see that coming.

Perhaps The Power of Now. I only read it once when I was about 50, but it was very wise, practical, readable and accessible. I think it would have resonated with me at that age at a time when I probably wasn’t ready for deeper philosophical classics with a more spiritual focus.

Not really.

I rarely recommend books to family and friends.

I definitely prefer non-fiction and within that I include classic philosophical texts that communicate wisdom. Mind you, a lot of books that are classified as non-fiction today will, I suspect, be rightly reclassified as fiction in a generation or two.

I have to read off screens a lot in my work, but when reading for leisure I always prefer to have a physical book in my hands. I never read eBooks or listen to audiobooks.

I don’t know about the ‘best’ book, but I definitely found The Canceling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott very interesting. It was well written and researched and laid out an excellently reasoned argument for why we are becoming a very uncivil society these days where closing down debate by cancelling people is very polarising and mostly a form of intellectual or ideological tyranny disguising itself under benevolent sounding slogans.

If they could read it with an open mind and real attention, I would recommend Plato’s Republic. His description of democracy in decline seems prescient almost like he is watching and describing current events. It may help people to understand what is happening in the world today, especially where our Western democracies seem to be headed, and what is needed to turn things around.

The first real book I ever willingly picked up, and read because I wanted to, was Plato’s Symposium. I was 25 years old, newly graduated from medicine, and had decided now was the time to broaden my horizons by letting bloom my latent interest in philosophy. I had heard of Plato, and on the back cover it said that the Symposium was about love, a topic I felt I should learn about. It was a revelation. The dialogue and characters were so alive, especially Socrates. Finally, a book that made the hard work of reading worth the effort. That’s when I became a ‘reader’.

I’ve named six books above so four others I would include are:

Shakespeare’s complete works – for a poet and playwright, his writings are unprecedented in their literary genius and philosophical depth

Bhagavad Gita – strong medicine, but great for those who like their wisdom served straight and unadulterated

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – really approachable and a great way to present wisdom through stories

Factfulness by Hans Rosling – he uses data to create a great argument for reason, informed decision-making and optimism

I am co-authoring a book with two colleagues which brings mindfulness together with critical thinking – the likely title, Mindfully Rational. This book feels timely. Why? It appears collectively we are heading towards an iceberg in terms of how most public debate and academic discourse are conducted these days. Critical thinking and debate have become forms of intellectual warfare with the focus on winning arguments, destroying opposition, and pushing agendas rather than a sincere, good natured and collaborative inquiry into the truth of the matter. Hopefully this book can help ‘turn the Titanic’.

A Round Peg in a Square Hole

Main image: Craig Hassed greeting the Dalai Lama on stage at the Sydney Convention Centre.