Now There's An App For Zen

The new Buddhify app claims to help you practice loving-kindness, even when you miss your train by one second and have to spend the next ten minutes watching rats eat trash while one guy screams about Jesus and another guy creepily asks you what your temporary tattoo means (it means “dinosaur,” asshole). The app offers “urban meditation tracks” that say things like, “When traveling around have you ever noticed that despite being among so many people we’re often just stuck in our own little stories?” It costs $2.99, which might be worth it if it replaced my “little story” of oh-god-all-the-people-are-terrible with serenity. However, many users in the App Store currently say it doesn’t work, which can only add to one’s anxiety.