A too mindful debate about mindfulness?

The Mind­ful­ness Back­lash (The New York Times):

“Mind­ful­ness has reached such a lev­el of hip­ness that it is now sug­gest­ed as a cure for essen­tial­ly every ail­ment. Anx­ious? Broke? Sneez­ing? Def­i­nite­ly try med­i­tat­ing. This vogue is in part due to the real ben­e­fits of mind­ful­ness, a form of atten­tion and aware­ness often (but not always) achieved through med­i­ta­tion or yoga. It’s a trend for a rea­son. But its increas­ing appli­ca­tion to every sit­u­a­tion under the sun has some peo­ple concerned…

Mind­ful­ness in its orig­i­nal Bud­dhist tra­di­tion “is not about being able to stare com­fort­ably at your com­put­er for hours on end, or get ‘in the zone’ to climb the cor­po­rate lad­der” — it’s about gain­ing insight into the human condition…She’s not the only one to ques­tion the empha­sis on med­i­ta­tion as a path to productivity.

At the core of this debate is a ques­tion about what mind­ful­ness should be. For some, it remains a fun­da­men­tal­ly reli­gious prac­tice, one root­ed in Buddhism’s ethics and under­stand­ing of social justice…But in the main­stream, mind­ful­ness is often seen sim­ply as a tool, a way of calm­ing and focus­ing one­self. As such it can be used to de-stress after a long day, to get more done at the office, or even to wage war.”

Relat­ed reading:

• Does mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion work? (Hint: First, define “work”)
• Med­i­ta­tion can change the struc­ture of the brain