Beyond 'world-views': How does Heidegger's *Mindfulness* challenge our modern obsession with meaninglessness and the 'predominance of beings'?

Heidegger's Mindfulness challenges the modern obsession with meaninglessness and the "predominance of beings" by advocating for a fundamental shift in thinking, urging a move away from calculative, objectifying thought towards a more inceptual questioning of Being itself. This involves overcoming metaphysics and its derivative "world-views" which, according to Heidegger, perpetuate the forgottenness of Being.

Heidegger argues that modern "world-views" are a deformation of metaphysics, characterized by a focus on beings, the pursuit of "goals" and "ideals," and a reliance on calculative thinking. He states, "The world-view is the enactment of the confirmation of the predominance of an absolute lack of mindfulness in the epoch of the completed meaninglessness" [G402]. This "meaninglessness" arises from the prioritization of beings over Being, leading to a superficial understanding of existence.

Mindfulness, in contrast, calls for a "knowing-awareness of the sway of power and of what is fundamentally effective in the self-overpowering of power" [G20]. This involves questioning the unquestioned assumptions of metaphysics and leaping into the hidden history of Being. Heidegger emphasizes that "metaphysics...can be overcome only by a more inceptual questioning of metaphysics’s ownmost question and by relegating metaphysics to its full historical necessity" [G25].

Furthermore, Mindfulness advocates for a transformed understanding of history, liberating it from objectification. Heidegger suggests that "overcoming ‘history’ must be a liberation of history from the orbit of objectification by ‘history’...mindfulness means inquiring into the sway of the truth and the decision of be-ing" [G184]. This "inquiring initiation" allows for a deeper engagement with Being, moving beyond the superficiality of "world-views" and their reliance on calculative, unhistorical thinking. By grounding ourselves in the truth of Being, we can counter the "completed meaninglessness" of modernity and open ourselves to a more profound understanding of existence.