In my experience, people get very irritated if something or someone interrupts their 'mindfulness' meditation.


Then they are doing it wrong. An important part of meditation, at least as tough in Zen Buddhism is to be able to get out of the meditative state. This was actually a matter of live and dead in ancient Japan where zen meditation was a part of samurai and sohei practice.

Actually stripping all the mumbo-jumbo of it, meditation is nothing more than putting your body on "autoscan", but I assume that "spiritual" people thing that you will levitate out of the window or something the like. Note that I use "spiritual' in a pejorative way.

An important part of meditation, at least as tough in Zen Buddhism is to be able to get out of the meditative state.


Actually, the point is to be able to maintain samadhi while doing anything.

My magical power and spiritual exercise consists in
Carrying water and gathering firewood.

P'ang Chü-shih (The Golden Age of Zen 94, 304 n.5)