Loki At present, the most common consensus in the industry is that mindfulness is one of the many practice paths of meditation, but many contemporary practitioners believe that the two have evolved completely different applicable scenarios and core goals, and can not be generalized simply by inclusion relationship.
If we go back to the traditional spiritual context, the scope of meditation is much wider. Whether it is Buddhist meditation, Hindu meditation or Taoist meditation, it actually belongs to the category of meditation. The ultimate goal is mostly to explore the inner essence and achieve spiritual improvement. I went to Zhongnanshan for a 10-day meditation a few years ago, and I had to sit for 6 meditation sessions every day for 45 minutes. I couldn't talk or watch my mobile phone all the time. During that time, I really felt the distractions obviously.
Speaking of which, some people may ask, aren't those 1-minute mindfulness breathing and mindfulness scanning on the internet now considered meditation? This is actually the most controversial place at present. Mindfulness, which we often talk about now, is actually the core technology of Mindfulness Decompression Therapy (MBSR) developed by Dr. Jon Kabajin in the 1970s, which stripped all religious attributes from mindfulness practice in Southern Buddhism. The goal has changed from the original spiritual pursuit to adjusting emotions and improving concentration, completely adapting to the life scene of contemporary people: when you get bored after a long weekly meeting at work, you can quietly draw your attention back to your nose and breathe, and you can calm your mood in one minute; When you are anxious about waiting in line, you can feel the touch of your feet on the ground, and you can also drag away distant thoughts. You don't even need to meditate cross-legged, but you can practice standing and sitting.
From the perspective of traditional meditation practitioners, many people think that this kind of lightweight mindfulness is not "orthodox meditation" at all, but more like an emotional placebo customized for urbanites, and even the most basic static state cannot be achieved. What are you talking about? However, in the eyes of practitioners of clinical psychology and enterprise EAP, this argument is meaningless-mindfulness does not need to be bound to the ultimate goal of traditional meditation, and it is valuable enough to help postpartum mothers ease their anxiety, help senior three students stabilize their mood before the exam, and help 996 office workers avoid road rage on their way to work.
I sorted out the core differences between the two types of practical perspectives, which are more clear in the following table:
| Contrast dimension | Meditation in the traditional context | Mindfulness in the Contemporary Context |
|---|---|---|
| Core objective | Explore the inner essence and realize spiritual promotion. | Regulate emotions and improve present concentration |
| Common scenes | Meditation camp, retreat center, private retreat space | Office, hospital clinic, commuter road, home |
| Study requirements | Need a fixed time, a fixed posture, at least 30 minutes at a time, and pursue a long time to settle down. | There is no time and posture limit, and you can practice for 1 minute. You only need to be "aware without judgment" |
| Applicable people | Practitioners who have enough time and want to explore the inside deeply. | Ordinary people who are troubled by daily emotions and concentration problems. |
In fact, to make a very popular analogy, if regulating the body and mind is compared to drinking tea, traditional meditation is like an aged Pu 'er brewed by a master who goes to a tea party. You have to sit up with your hands clean in advance and taste it slowly for a few hours. What you finally drink is the charm that has been deposited in tea for more than ten years, and you can even feel the mood when making tea. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is like a cheap teabag in your desk drawer. If you work overtime until you are dizzy, tear it open and soak it for 3 minutes. If you drink it, you will be bored and refreshed. You don't have to pay attention to any tea ceremony rules at all, just be useful.
Seriously, there is no black-and-white boundary between the two, and there is no need to argue who is more "authentic". If you want to take time to precipitate yourself and explore a deeper inner state, try traditional meditation for a long time; If you just want to solve the small problems of irritability and inattention, it is no problem to take a mindfulness breath for 1 minute, and what suits you is the best.
