Is Mindfulness a Religious Practice?
One of the most common hesitations in developing mindfulness programs for schools or offices is due to the belief that “Mindfulness = Buddhism”. While it's true that mindfulness is a concept taught in Buddhism, it's also a concept taught in all other religions, and more importantly, taught by countless non-religious organizations. Mindfulness is simply kindness, active kindness. It's about being aware of how your own mind works, moment to moment, so that you can be more actively kind to others and to yourself.
A teaching of Christianity is to "treat others the way you'd want to be treated". This is mindfulness, it is kindness. Pretty much every school teaches kids the importance of treating others the way they would want to be treated. It doesn't matter that it is said in the Bible or any other religious text. Nobody questions it because we understand that this concept is not exclusive to religious practice, but rather a basic kindness towards others that we all can benefit from.
Mindfulness, and the techniques taught to train in it, are the same as treating others the way you'd want to be treated. It's the recognition that all of us are equally important. Just as you want happiness for yourself, all others want happiness as well. And so we should all live our lives intentionally recognizing that other people's quest for happiness is equally as valid and important as our own. There should be no hesitation about teaching this universal truth, there is nothing more important to teach than recognizing the equality of all people.
Lastly, mindfulness, and all other ideas for that matter, come from the same place — the mind. Every helpful invention or technique from the wagon wheel to the theory of relativity originated as a thought in someone's mind. Religions do not own thoughts — thoughts have no patents and all religious concepts came first from someone's mind. When we teach mindfulness we are teaching the realizations of the human mind, not a deity or higher power. Mindfulness is a helpful way of thinking and we should be careful not to automatically block out helpful ways of thinking just because another organization agrees or disagrees with them. We need to investigate these concepts for ourselves and determine if we think they make us a better person or not. If they do, then nothing else matters, we should embrace it.