Jon Kabat-Zinn, the father of secular mindfulness has defined mindfulness meditation as “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”.
This is correct, of course in the context of therapeutic secular mindfulness practices. In contrast the Buddha defined mindfulness by the objects one is mindful of, ie in the context of a recipe, flour has a place and a purpose, but is meaningful if defined in how it will be eventually used, and at what point, to deliver what, in the end eg: its use in baking a cake. Defining flour as white and edible if cooked, is correct but it might be more useful to say it’s an ingredient in cakes, pastries, wraps etc.
