That seems to me like little more than an appeal to tradition. I suppose the argument goes “if Buddhists didn't benefit from their mindfulness, Buddhism wouldn'

That seems to me like little more than an appeal to tradition. I suppose the argument goes “if Buddhists didn't benefit from their mindfulness, Buddhism wouldn't have lasted so long” ? That hardly seems falsifiable because it relies on historical evolution of communities correlated to a one-parameter model of individuals. Other factors could play a bigger role in the correlation.