Parts of mindfulness practice may be useful, but does that mean you have to embrace the entire belief system associated with mindfulness practice – that is, an ideology with religious overtones? In his book Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn seems to say so:
…meditation practice is, more than anything, a way of being. It is not a set of techniques for healing. 3707 (Kindle pagination)
This is odd, because in discussing various Buddhist groups, Kabat-Zinn says it is fine to “take what appeals to you and leave the rest” (9736). He does not allow such a discriminating approach to mindfulness:
…we are asking even more of our patients and of ourselves than just a time for formal meditation practice. For it is only by making the practice a “way of being” that its power can be put into practical use. The real mindfulness practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment, whatever we are doing, whatever our circumstances. 1376-1383
So, according to Kabat-Zinn, it’s not kosher to consider mindfulness a toolkit, to use at certain times, when needed. No, mindfulness is a “way of being” that requires a lifelong commitment to “living a life of awareness” (8581).
Some mindfulness advocates will say that “awareness” and “way of being” are not religious or ideological concepts. However, these concepts are based on a whole set of assumptions and beliefs about wider, nonhypothetical truths, which are religious in their “aura of utter actuality” and ideological in their systematized interrelationships.
References:
Kabat-Zinn, Jon (2013) Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, Kindle Version, Revised Edition; Bantam Books, New York
Geertz, Clifford (1993) The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, pp.87-125. Fontana Press, London.