The other day I got a solicitation from Shambhala Sun magazine. It included a series of “True or False” questions designed to intrigue the solicitee, one of which was:
Playing rock is a profound spiritual path.
A: True. Any activity is, if you do it mindfully.
Any activity is a profound spiritual path if you do it mindfully. Interesting assertion. Is it true?

I suppose I am quibbling a little, but the first thing that comes to mind is: there is no school of Buddhism which holds that unethical activity is a “profound spiritual path.” Maybe they felt we could take this for granted, but I’m not so sure that it doesn’t bear mentioning.

Even if we grant that they meant any activity done mindfully is a profound spiritual path provided that the activity in question is not unethical, the statement is still somewhat suspect. A few weeks ago I explored how mindfulness (sati in Pali, sm?ti in Sanskrit) is defined, and what purpose it is said to serve. As far as I can tell, the idea that basic mindfulness in postmeditation, in and of itself, is a sufficient practice to bring about awakening is held only by some Zen teachers. In the Theravada tradition, as we discovered, there seems to be an ongoing discussion of how sati is to be understood in relation to manasikara, samadhi, sampajañña, and jhana, but no one would take the aforementioned position. Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings also qualify their definitions of and assertions regarding mindfulness in various ways.
The letter goes on to state: “As a subscriber, you’ll learn how anything [italics theirs] you do—when combined with meditation practice—offers an opportunity to practice awareness and compassion.” Well, that is something else then.
Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace sums up the issue in a relevant interview with Tricycle magazine, titled “A mindful balance: What did the Buddha really mean by ‘mindfulness?'”
It ’s far more than a semantic issue. In common usage the English term mindfulness simply means to be aware, or heedful. Sati has a much richer connotation, so those wishing to practice Buddhist meditation are well advised to gain as clear an understanding of this and other related terms as they can, based on the most authoritative sources they can find. Otherwise, Buddhist meditation quickly devolves into a vague kind of “be here now” mentality, in which the extraordinary depth and richness of Buddhist meditative traditions are lost. . . . if mindfulness as it is commonly understood today were all that is needed to achieve liberation, then all the rest of the Buddha’s teachings would be pointless.