The difference between mindfulness and meditation

Mindfulness is a kind of "intentionally and non-judgmentally anchoring the current state of mind". You may enter a state of mindfulness while standing on the subway, eating buns, or catching fish in a meeting. Meditation is a type of "systematic mental training tool that specifically sets aside time and is carried out in a relatively stable scene."

When I first came into contact with mental training, I always used the two words interchangeably. After all, almost all related apps on the market bundled "mindfulness meditation" into a fixed phrase. It wasn't until I went to a Vipassana center in Fujian for ten days last year that the Zen master in the temple dispelled the misunderstanding on the first day. During lunch that day, I was still thinking about how long I would sit in meditation for the afternoon, and whether my legs would be so numb that I couldn't stand up. The Zen master just walked up to me and tapped the rim of my bowl: "Chew the rice carefully in your mouth, and don't think about things that haven't happened yet. This is mindfulness. You don't have to wait to sit on the futon to find it again. If you sit on the futon for two hours and think about what to eat in the evening, that's called sitting. It's not even meditation, let alone mindfulness."

Oh, yes, many people now equate the two. Essentially, this is because the type of meditation that is most exposed to the public today is "mindfulness meditation" - which is the core training method in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) founded by Kabat-Zinn. In order to save trouble in commercial promotion, the two words are bundled together and sold. After a long time, everyone naturally thinks that they are the same thing. But if you really want to be serious, the boundary between the two is actually quite clear. Just think about it: when you were making earphones in the morning, you stared at the hot water slowly seeping through the dark brown coffee powder, and the burnt aroma drifted into your nose little by little. You didn't think about the three weekly newspapers you had to hand in today, or judge whether it was a waste of time to stay up late yesterday to watch TV series. At this time, you are in a state of mindfulness. You can't say that you are meditating, right? On the other hand, if you lay down a yoga mat after taking a shower in the evening, and do a 10-minute body scan following the guidance sound, and your attention occasionally wanders to whether the takeout has arrived, then you are indeed practicing meditation, but you have not yet entered a state of mindfulness.

The definitions of different genres actually have subtle differences, and there is no need to unify them. In traditional Theravada Buddhism, mindfulness is one of the branches of practice of the "Eightfold Path." The corresponding Four Mindfulness Practices essentially require practitioners to maintain awareness of the body, feelings, mind, and Dharma in all daily behaviors, such as walking, sitting, and lying down. Zen practice (that is, what we call meditation) is just an introductory method to help you quickly become familiar with this state of awareness. In the end, what you need to achieve is to be able to practice without leaving mindfulness while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. In Kabat-Zinn's modern mindfulness system, mindfulness is directly separated from the religious context and used for clinical stress intervention. In his framework, meditation is completely a "training wheel" for beginners. Once you are familiar enough with the feeling of "returning to the present moment", you can bring mindfulness to all scenes such as meetings, raising children, and crowded subways. There is no need to specially take time to sit down and meditate.

It is also interesting that many schools of thought do not regard mindfulness as the core goal of meditation at all. For example, Transcendental Meditation, which has become popular in Silicon Valley in recent years, focuses on entering a "transcendental state of consciousness" by repeatedly chanting exclusive mantras. It pursues deep relaxation, enhanced creativity and even a jump in consciousness. In their system, mindfulness is only an accessory state that may occur during the meditation process, and is not the core pursuit of the practice at all. There are also many practitioners of expressive art therapy who will lead clients to anchor their current feelings through dancing and graffiti. The whole process does not require meditation practice at all and can still help clients enter a stable state of mindfulness.

I have encountered many related pitfalls before. When I first started practicing, I always felt that if I didn’t sit down for 20 minutes a day to meditate, it would be a waste of practice. I bought several hundred yuan of futons and set an alarm clock to clock in at 7 o’clock every morning. I would blame myself for a long time if I wandered even a little while sitting. On the contrary, the more I practiced, the more anxious I became. Later, there was a period when I was so busy with the project that my feet were not touching the ground. I couldn't spare the whole time to sit on the mat. Instead, during the 20 minutes of commuting on a shared bicycle every day, I consciously felt the touch of the wind blowing on the tips of my ears and the rhythm of my feet exerting force when pedaling. I didn't even wear headphones. During that period, my mood was stable. On the contrary, sex is much better than when you clock in and sit on a futon every day. It was then that you really understood the boundary between the two: meditation is just a tool to help you become familiar with the feeling of mindfulness. The state you want to practice "not stuck in the past, not worrying about the future, and not judging yourself casually" is the state of mindfulness itself.

To be honest, many people have reversed the relationship between the two. They have accumulated a drawer of meditation-related peripherals, bought thousands of courses, and clocked in every day. When they were sitting, their minds were always thinking, "Did I wander again just now? Why can't I calm down for so long?" On the contrary, they have even lost the meaning of meditation, let alone the edge of mindfulness. In fact, how can there be so many thresholds? Put down your phone now and carefully feel the pressure of your butt sitting on the chair for three seconds, and the slight rise and fall of your chest when you breathe. In this second, you are already in righteous mindfulness, and it has nothing to do with whether you clock in, whether you buy a futon or not, or whether you buy a futon or not.