Because there is the fear that the Dhamma that actually can liberate a person from suffering, could disappear.Lazy_eye wrote:Then why worry about secular mindfulness movements, or companies borrowing meditation techniques from Buddhism? Obviously these trends reflect the interests of puthujjana, who as you say are inclined towards the world. The objection that "such practices will not lead to cessation/liberation" is not relevant to these practitioners, because that's not their goal to begin with.
Conversely, since your goal is liberation, as opposed to, say, better productivity at work, nothing is stopping you from following a more authentic Buddhist path and avoiding these "lite" versions. Where is the cause for dispute?
More and more of what is forwarded under "Buddhism" is becoming a secularized, materialistic effort. So we get (at least nominally) Buddhist establishments where the people in positions of power openly express their skepticism about key Buddhist concepts, such as karma and rebirth, or who openly speak about their dilemmas about end-of-life issues. Things that, as self-declared Buddhists, they should reasonably have settled long before claiming to be Buddhists, and long before taking on those important positions of power as teachers or leaders.
By all means, people can do what they want. But not just anything can be called Buddhism and publicly forwarded as such.