Coralie At present, the most common cognition is that meditation is a large category containing dozens of practice techniques, and mindfulness is one of the most widely used branches. However, many academic researchers and senior practitioners believe that the origin and orientation of meditation are very different and cannot be simply classified as subordination. Many people's confusion about the two actually comes from the most popular "mindfulness meditation" on the market-that is, the kind that everyone often practices with the app and sits and watches breathing, which belongs to the intersection of the two, so it is easy to confuse.
If we go to the root, the scope of traditional meditation is much wider than many people think: monks in temples meditate and hold spells, Taoists practice breathing and breathing, and even some minority schools meditate on images and music. These are all categories of meditation, and the goals of different schools are also different. Some seek extreme concentration, some seek physical and mental emptiness, and some pursue specific physical and mental telepathic experiences. Most of them need you to set aside a fixed time to complete them in a quiet environment. Mindfulness is one of the eight paths of Buddhism at the earliest, and it is not a practice of sitting alone at all. The core requirement is that people should be aware of it without judgment when walking, living, sitting and lying down. For example, when you eat, don't brush your mobile phone, and carefully taste the aroma of every grain of rice and the crisp feeling of vegetables. Even if you eat a Jiang Ye, you will feel "Oh, this is the spicy taste of ginger". This is the standard mindfulness practice. You can't say that you are eating a meal.
Two years ago, when I took the mindfulness camp offline, a girl who worked as an Internet operator said that she had practiced meditation for half a year before, and watched chakras with guidance every day. It was really calm when she sat down, but when the boss temporarily changed her needs, she still exploded in an instant, and she couldn't get rid of her anger when she spoke to her colleagues in private for half an hour. Later, I practiced mindfulness with us for two months, so I didn't have to take time to sit down. I just stopped for three seconds when I needed to change my temper, and I was aware of my physical reaction. Last month, she also told me that the last time my boss sent a message in the early morning to change the plan, her first reaction was not to be upset and break her mobile phone, but "Oh, my temples are a little tight now, and I'm a little impatient". She was able to go to bed calmly after replying to the news, and even her boyfriend asked her how her temper was recently.
I have compiled a simple comparison, so that everyone can feel the difference between them:
| Contrast dimension | Common meditation exercises | Mindfulness practice |
|---|---|---|
| Core orientation | There are many clear goals, such as the pursuit of brain emptying, physical and mental peace, and the acquisition of specific sensory experiences. | There is no requirement of "what state must be achieved", only the awareness without judgment is emphasized, and irritability and calmness are all objects of observation. |
| Applicable scenario | Most of them need to set aside a fixed time and do it in a quiet environment, mainly static exercises. | It can be completely integrated into all daily scenes, and can be practiced when eating, walking, having meetings and even quarreling. |
| Practice form | Including meditation, mantra-holding, visualization, breathing adjustment, dynamic meditation and other forms of dozens of different schools. | In addition to basic static exercises such as mindfulness breathing and body scanning, there are more daily exercises such as mindfulness eating, mindfulness walking and mindfulness communication. |
| Common misunderstandings | Many people think that meditation must "think nothing", and if you are distracted, you are practicing wrong. | Many people think that mindfulness must be practiced sitting down, but in fact, it meets the requirements as long as you remain aware. |
Of course, there are many experienced meditation practitioners who feel that it is not necessary to distinguish the two. After all, most of the meditations that the public are exposed to now are improved mindfulness schools, which are essentially exercises to help people adjust their state. It doesn't matter what their names are. In fact, for those of us who want to improve our mood and relieve stress, we really don't have to worry about whether it is mindfulness or meditation. If you like to sit quietly for 10 minutes every day and relax with guidance, you can choose anything. If you are too busy to sit for 10 minutes at ordinary times and want to practice it, you can use it in your work and life. Then try more fragmented mindfulness practice, and you will probably not step on the pit ~
