Are We Still Practicing Engaged Mindfulness—or Just Talking About It?

This article is based on a talk by Fleet Maull, PhD.

Are we teaching mindfulness, or are we just life-hacking? As the practice goes mainstream, there is a growing fear that we are losing the depth of ancient traditions in favor of stress-management techniques. But according to Fleet Maull, the secret to deep practice isn't in the technique you choose—it's in the person teaching it.

"...we're engaging in practice so that we're deepening in our path ... that's gonna come through. It's gonna radiate without us having to say anything." Fleet Maull

When the Meditation Buffet Becomes a Problem

Jonathan was struggling. Not with his practice exactly, but with something more slippery. He and his co-facilitator were teaching mindfulness in a prison—one of the most challenging environments you could imagine—and they'd fallen into what he called "a kind of candy store of meditation practices."

"Oh, let's try this today, let's try that today."

You know the feeling. Maybe you've been there too. Scrolling through meditation apps, hopping from body scans to loving-kindness to breath work to walking meditation, always searching for the next technique that might finally stick. It feels productive. Educational, even. But something's missing.

"How do we do that," Jonathan asked Fleet Maull during a recent teacher training session, "and at the same time, encourage a sense of path, a sense of growth?"

It's the question underneath so many of our questions about mindfulness: How do we offer practical tools without losing the depth? How do we help people without reducing ancient wisdom traditions to mere stress-management techniques?

The Only Teacher Who Ever Said It

Fleet paused before answering, and when he spoke, he invoked his Zen teacher, Bernie Glassman:

"Bernie Glassman was the only teacher I ever heard say this. And he said, sometimes a skillful means as teachers is we have to offer the students a little bit of candy."

There it was—permission to be practical. Permission to meet people where they are. But there's a catch, and it's a big one.

Think about it this way: If you're trying to establish a meditation practice and all you experience is "racing monkey mind, pain in our back, pain in our knees, and boredom," how likely are you to continue?

Not very likely.

Fleet suspects that with the growth of mainstream mindfulness, "probably a majority of the people that start a practice don't continue because the way they're instructed, it's just difficult, it's boring, and they're not really experiencing a lot of results."

And then life gets in the way. Of course it does.

The Prison Paradox

So here's Jonathan, teaching in a prison. His students aren't dealing with abstract concepts about suffering—they're living it. They need help getting through the day. They need tools to stay out of trouble, to stay safe, to manage chronic pain, to navigate "the incredible challenges of being in that environment."

Should he feel guilty about giving them practical techniques? About offering them Monday's session on pain management because that's what they asked for?

"I think the depth part of it and the path quality has a lot to do with us."

Fleet's answer is unequivocal: "I think it's great to help people learn mindfulness-based tools or practices or many practices of all sorts that help them navigate their life with greater ease and health and less danger and better outcomes."

But then comes the turn—the deeper teaching hidden inside the permission:

"I think the depth part of it and the path quality has a lot to do with us."

The Secret Ingredient Isn't a Technique

Here's what Fleet is really saying: The depth doesn't come from choosing the "right" meditation practice or avoiding the "shallow" ones. The depth comes from you.

"If we're really honoring our own path and we're really, you know, very interested in our own deepening and we're engaging in practice so that we're deepening in our path, we're continually studying and practicing and doing retreats and deepening, that's gonna come through. It's gonna radiate without us having to say anything."

Read that again. The transmission isn't in the words you say or the techniques you teach. It's in who you are when you're sitting there with them.

Think of it like this: You can teach someone the exact same breathing technique in two completely different ways. In one version, it's just a stress-reduction hack, a life-hack for anxiety. In another, taught by someone who has sat through countless hours of their own practice, who has faced their own demons and discovered something profound—that same breath becomes a doorway.

The technique hasn't changed. You have.

Trust in the Path of Practice

But what about the students who just want the candy? The ones who grab onto "just a little breath regulation practice or a simple mini-mindfulness practice because it helps them get through their day"?

Fleet offers something radical here: trust.

"We can trust that all beings are already enlightened. The wisdom mind is there at the core of their being and the core of their heart. And all the little, however they're getting introduced, whatever doing and the interactions we have are tickling. They're tickling that thing in there and eventually it's gonna awaken and get more interested in a path and in greater depth."

He's talking about trust on multiple levels:

• Trust in your own practice and path

• Trust in the inherent wisdom of your students

• Trust in the process itself

Every interaction, every simple technique, every moment of presence—it's all "tickling" something deeper. You might not see it happen. They might not see it happen. But something is stirring beneath the surface.

The Humility of Not Knowing

There's a beautiful phrase Fleet uses that's easy to miss: "being a lot of not knowing and a lot of humility about how that happens."

This is the antidote to the expert syndrome that plagues so much of modern mindfulness teaching. We don't actually know how someone's path will unfold. We can't predict when the practical tool becomes the gateway to transformation. We can't force depth.

What we can do is this:

• Honor our own practice and keep deepening

• Offer genuinely helpful tools without apology

• Hold the intention and context of depth

• Trust the process

• Stay humble about how awakening happens

So, Are You Still Practicing?

Jonathan's question wasn't really about choosing between pain management techniques and "real" meditation. It was about integrity. About whether we've lost something essential in our rush to make mindfulness accessible and practical.

When we're so busy offering techniques that we've stopped deepening our own practice. When we're teaching mindfulness but not living it.

Fleet's answer suggests we haven't lost it—but only if we haven't lost ourselves in the process.

The candy store isn't the problem. The problem is when we become candy store clerks who've forgotten why the candy exists in the first place.

The candy store isn't the problem. The problem is when we become candy store clerks who've forgotten why the candy exists in the first place. When we're so busy offering techniques that we've stopped deepening our own practice. When we're teaching mindfulness but not living it.

"As long as we have the intention and the context of depth, and that's what we're about," Fleet says, "I think we can feel free to offer tools that are helping people deal with their lives."

The question isn't whether you're offering practical tools or profound wisdom. The question is: Are you still practicing? Are you still deepening? Are you still on the path yourself?

Because if you are, everything you touch—even the simplest breathing exercise, even the most practical pain-management technique—becomes a transmission of something deeper.

The candy is just how we get people in the door.

What keeps them there—what transforms them—is the depth they sense in you, the path they glimpse through your presence, the wisdom mind that recognizes itself in you and whispers, "There's more here. Keep going."

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Interested in taking the next step? Learn more about our Mindfulness Teacher Training (MTT) to deepen your practice and build the professional skills required to share meditation in your community.

Fleet Maull is the founder of the Engaged Mindfulness Institute and teaches mindfulness-based programs in prisons, healthcare settings, and communities worldwide. This conversation is from a recent teacher training session.