The West uses meditation against its original purpose

The way the West uses meditation—for feeling better, productivity, and stress reduction—says more about Western values than about the original tradition, whose point was always deconstructing the self; meditation was not developed to cure illness but to cultivate awakening, a fundamentally different project, and the benefits the West seeks are merely byproducts of a different aim focused on less self-concern and more availability to the present and to others.