And yes, DEFINITELY the benefits of equal and great magnitude ARE obtained through traditional yoga and meditation too.. absolutely no doubt about it..

Midful mediation is nothing but bowlderization/plagiarization of Vipasana meditation.

Here’s an excerpt from Rajiv Malhotra’s article “Panch (Five) Asymmetries in the Dialog of Civilizations: A Hindu View”

http://www.barnard.edu/religion/defamation/malhotra.htm

“some Indic theoretical models are at the center of the philosophy of quantum physics based emerging worldviews. But many ancient Hindu-Buddhist inner science discoveries are being mis-appropriated and/or plagiarized:

‘Lucid Dreaming’ is the western name for Indo-Tibetan nidra yoga, and Stanford’s Stephen LaBerge is nowadays the acknowledged discoverer.
‘Mindfulness Meditation’ is Jon-Kabat Zinn’s trademarked repackaging of vipassna.
Herb Benson repackaged TM into his ‘Relaxation Response’ and now runs a multimillion dollar business based at Harvard, claiming these as his discoveries. Numerous spin-offs in mainstream stress management and management consulting theories came from this source.
Rupert Sheldrake recently ‘came out’ in an interview acknowledging that his famous theory known as ‘Morphogenic Resonance’ was developed while researching in India’s ashrams.
Ken Wilbur started out very explicitly as an interpreter of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy for the benefit of psychologists, but now places himself as the discoverer on a higher pedestal.
Esalen Institute appropriated J. Krishnamurti and numerous other Indic thinkers into what its contemporary followers regard as it own ‘New Worldview’.
Thomas Berry, Brother Keating (successor to Bede Griffiths), and others have constructed the New Liberal Christianity, using Indic appropriations. Jewish scholars have likewise constructed the ‘non-dualistic Kabala’ based on Vedanta.

This is only part of a long list: the core of the emerging ‘western’ worldview and cosmology involving physics, cognitive science, and biology is being rapidly built upon repackaged Indic knowledge, but too frequently the source is being erased and over time. Yogis and meditators, who should be regarded as co-discoverers, usually remain anonymous ‘laboratory subjects’ and native informants.”

Meditation certainly calms one down and reduces the stress level. I found it very helpful in stress ful situations. However the benefits of mediation are not just material after a while there is definitely some spiritual transformation too!

meditation works