Mindfulness, disapproval, and morality

Secular mindfulness is often conceived of not merely as a therapeutic technique, but as a valuable way of life. Yet on such accounts, mindfulness is also commonly thought to preclude disapproving moral emotions and judgments directed at an object. This raises a tension between morality and secular accounts of mindfulness: on such accounts, mindfulness precludes sustaining disapproving attitudes toward an object, but such attitudes are commonly held to be crucial to the moral life (e.g. anger at injustice). I argue that secular theories of mindfulness must accommodate sustaining at least some disapproving attitudes within a mindful state if mindfulness is to be widely recommended as a way of life. I then develop a positive, secular theory of mindfulness that makes such accommodations, arguing that mindfulness is best conceived of as involving an orientation of openness – a receptive, non-egocentric acknowledgment of an object as it is. Openness can accommodate relevant disapproving moral emotions and judgments while aligning with the spirit of prominent accounts of mindfulness, making an openness-based account of mindfulness well-suited to be widely recommended as a way of life.