Mindfulness

From Zen's email on Oct 16 2010:

As requested, I have tried to provide some pointers, questions and links to material that should help to stimulate our discussion and report writing on the topic of mindfulness. I hope you can find something interesting to pursue.

Starting with some definitions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness

I find the name Thich Nhat Hanh immediately occurs to me when I think of mindfulness because he writes about it so much. He defines mindfulness as follows: “Mindfulness is the capacity to be aware of what is going on, and what is there. The object of your mindfulness can be anything.” http://abundance-blog.marelisa-onlin...indful-living/

Do you practice mindfulness?
Do you find the practice beneficial?
Is the Pab 9 secs practice a form of mindfulness?
Do you eat mindfully and/or think this is a worthwhile practice?

I notice that if you type 'mindfulness' into Google you seem to come up with sites mostly devoted to the clinical utility of mindfulness meditation for mental-health. Is this a positive phenomenon do you think? In other words, how do you feel about the 'psychologizing' of Buddhism - of isolating mindfulness from its Buddhist context and using it as a kind of standalone technique that helps people cope with depression and stress disorders, as in MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction)?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_psychology 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_(psychology)


Do you practice 'Mindfulness Meditation?' What benefits do you see or hope for?

http://www.stjohnprovidence.org/inne...px?PageID=1779

What is the difference between concentration and mindfulness?http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

What do you think of Norman Fischer's paradoxical claim that mindfulness is actually related to the body rather than the mind? http://www.everydayzen.org/index.php...lness&pgLimits[book]=0&pgLimits[audio]=10&pgLimits[text]=0&task=viewTeaching&id=text-267-230

The Mindfulness Sutra: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit...22.0.than.html

And finally, The Myth of Mindfulness - "What's so great about now?" http://www.tricycle.com/dharma_talk/3648-1.html
You probably won't be able to access this article unless you have a subscription to Tricycle magazine so I have provided some short extracts that hopefully get the meaning across:

"..The current myth among some meditation circles is that the more mindful we are, the more beauty we'll perceive in mundane objects. To the mind with bare attention, even the suds in the dishpan—as their bubbles glint and wink in the light—are windows on a divine radiance. That's the myth. But the truth is almost the opposite: in fact, the more mindfulness we have, the less compelling sense-objects seem, until at last we lose all desire for them..."
"...Then why cultivate mindfulness? Why stay in the present at all? .."
"...As paradoxical as it sounds, we can only find this genuine happiness by first understanding that the present moment of mind and body is unsatisfactory. By progressing through the stages of insight - experiencing fear, then weariness, then dispassion when noting phenomena—we can give up attachment, the real cause of distress. The more clearly we see the lack of worth in mental and physical sensations, the less desire we'll have for them until, thoroughly disenchanted, craving will be snuffed out automatically. As soon as that occurs, pure happiness will arise by itself..."