What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Simply put, mindfulness is one of many forms of meditation practice, but in different contexts, the boundary between the two has always been controversial, and it is difficult to say it in one sentence.

What we call meditation in the public context actually has a very broad scope. Whether it is popular sleep aids and stress-reduction exercises on the market, or practice exercises in various religious traditions, or even dynamic exercises such as Sufi spinning and walking meditation, as long as it consciously adjusts the state of attention and points to inner awareness, most of them can be classified under the category of meditation. The mindfulness we often refer to mostly refers to secular mindfulness after Kabat-Zinn’s dereligious transformation. The core is “awareness of the present moment without judgment.” Breathing exercises, body scans, and mindful eating that you usually encounter all fall into this category, which is equivalent to a subcategory of meditation that has a particularly wide audience.

But when this statement is put into the context of professional research or traditional practice, there are often different answers. Many practitioners who are deeply involved in traditional spiritual practice will feel that the popular secular mindfulness actually only takes away a small part of the "awareness" function of traditional meditation practice. The core goal is to relieve stress and regulate emotions. It has no training logic of traditional meditation's "stop and observe", and does not point to deeper mind training. It is essentially different from the goals and paths of traditional meditation. It cannot be simply classified as a subordinate relationship, and it is not even considered meditation in the strict sense.

To use an inappropriate analogy, meditation is like the entire tea category, which includes green tea, black tea, oolong tea, Kung Fu tea and blended tea. The popular secular mindfulness is like the zero-sugar cold brew tea that has become popular in the past two years - you say it belongs to a tea bar, it does use the raw materials of tea, and it also has the flavor of tea, but more experienced tea drinkers will feel that it omits the core process of traditional tea making and brewing, and does not have the core of tea tasting. It can only be regarded as a tea-flavored drink, not serious tea.

I couldn't tell the difference when I first came into contact with this type of practice. In the past few years, I often stayed up until early in the morning to work on Internet projects. I was so anxious that I had to rely on painkillers to cope with migraines. Later, I followed the APP to do a 10-minute mindfulness body scan. After doing it, I could really feel the tension in my shoulders and neck relax. At that time, I always thought that this was what meditation was all about. It wasn’t until my friends who followed the practice came into contact with traditional Samatha Meditation that I realized that the depth of concentration and awareness of thoughts required by the latter were completely different from the “fast-food” mindfulness I had practiced before. After practicing for half an hour, my whole state became much clearer, and it was then that I slowly discovered the source of the conceptual differences between the two.

In fact, there is really no need for ordinary practitioners to get entangled in the definitions of the two. Whether it is mindfulness or meditation, it can help you bring your attention away from KPIs and unread messages back to the present moment. What makes you comfortable and relaxed is the practice that suits you. Digging for concepts will deviate from the original intention of the practice, right?