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What is mindfulness? Is it therapy, a religious practice, a philosophy or a practical means of navigating the every day? Using the stories of four archetypal characters - the monk, ninja, doctor, and zombie - this book unpacks the assumptions, motivations and expectations we now bring to the meditative practice of mindfulness. The four types act as our guides through an exploration of mindfulness and the deeply ideological debates surrounding it. The monk stands for mindfulness as spiritual purity, wisdom and enlightenment; the ninja self-mastery and a consummate zen skill and the doctor is the model of meditative practice as used in treatments and professional care. The zombie, far from being an aspirational model, epitomizes a common fear: mindfulness as cult-mentality. Balancing Buddhism, Daoism, Stoicism, contemporary therapeutic paradigms and capitalist imagery with firsthand accounts from teachers and students, this is the story of mindfulness as a various, complex way of living.