What is the relationship between mindfulness and meditation?

To put it simply, the two are overlapping and have their own boundaries - mindfulness can be a core technology of meditation, or it can be a daily state of consciousness separated from meditation practice. Meditation includes mindfulness exercises, and there are many schools and methods that have nothing to do with mindfulness.

When I first came into contact with mental exercises, I thought they were the same thing. At that time, I signed up for an offline get out of class to reduce stress in the workplace. The teacher taught all about mindfulness meditation such as mindful breathing and body scanning. After practicing for two months, I subconsciously equated mindfulness with meditation. It was not until I followed a friend to experience the Theravada Vipassana course, and was exposed to many meditation methods of the Tibetan system, that I discovered that many meditation exercises were not in line with the core requirements of mindfulness. For example, some visualization meditations will guide you to imagine golden light pouring into your body from the top of your head and draining negative emotions down your toes. The core of this type of practice is to actively guide your consciousness towards a preset goal, which is completely different from the "non-judgmental and truthful awareness of the present moment" emphasized by mindfulness.

Speaking of it, there have always been different views on the boundary between the two. Most practitioners who prefer modern clinical applications will default to equating mindfulness with mindfulness meditation. After all, most of the meditation content now available to the public has evolved from Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy. In daily life, "I will do some mindfulness" and "I will meditate for a while" basically refer to the same thing. If you have to push the boundaries, it will seem pretentious. However, people who practice traditional religious practice do not agree with this statement. In their system, meditation is the general term for all exercises that deliberately adjust the state of consciousness. Mantra chanting, visualization, and worship are all branches of meditation. Mindfulness is only a very small type of practice goal, or even just an incidental effect of certain meditation exercises. It cannot be equated with meditation at all.

In fact, for ordinary practitioners, there is no need to get entangled in the controversy between academia and practice circles. Just take it from a daily scenario: you take 10 minutes to find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes, notice the ups and downs of your breathing, and pull back when your mind wanders. At this time, what you are doing is both mindfulness practice and meditation practice.； But when you were squeezing the subway during the morning rush hour at work, you consciously focused on the touch of the ground under your feet and the coolness of the wind on the tips of your ears. During the whole process, you did not get caught up in anxiety about being late or review of yesterday’s leadership criticism. At this time, you were maintaining mindfulness, but you can’t say you were meditating on the subway, right?

To give a loose analogy, meditation is like the category of "sports", while mindfulness is more like "running": running is the most popular form of exercise with the lowest threshold. Many people's first contact with sports starts with running, just like most people who come into contact with meditation start with mindfulness meditation.； You specifically took time to go to the playground and run five kilometers as planned. It was both running and exercise. However, when you were catching the bus, you ran fifty meters unconsciously. This was using running movements, but it is not a dedicated exercise.

If you really want to practice, don’t worry about the concept. If you want to find a special time to calm down and adjust your state, find an appropriate meditation practice. If you want to reduce the internal consumption of random thoughts in your daily life, remind yourself to return to the current state of mindfulness. It is easier to use than anything else.