What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

The most popular distinction is actually that meditation is a large family that includes dozens of different practices. Mindfulness is only one of the most widely spread members of this family. However, many traditional practitioners and clinical practitioners believe that through the adaptation and development of modern psychology, mindfulness has formed an independent practice system and can be discussed alongside meditation in a broad sense.

I have been practicing for almost 5 years and have been exposed to both. The difference is particularly obvious in the goals and logic of practice. When I participated in meditation exercises at a Zen retreat before, the instructor required that the attention should be completely anchored on the breath and touch at the tip of the nose. Once the mind wanders, it should be pulled back immediately. The ultimate goal is to enter a stable state where distracting thoughts have completely subsided. If the thought "How good is today's meal" pops up in the middle, it is regarded as a "distraction" that needs to be corrected. Similar mantras, visualization, and chanting also belong to the category of meditation. The core is to guide the consciousness into a preset state through specific methods.

But the logic of mindfulness is completely different. Last time I went to the pain management clinic of the hospital to do mindfulness exercises with a friend, the instructor even took the initiative to say, "It's normal for your mind to wander. You can realize that your mind is wandering, which is the reward of practice."

Of course, there are also many mass practitioners who feel that there is no need to be so detailed. The content in many meditation apps for office workers today originally combines mindfulness awareness with the relaxation methods of traditional meditation. For example, when doing body scans, it not only uses the attention anchoring technique in meditation, but also conforms to the core of mindfulness of "non-judgmental awareness". To insist on who belongs to whom is a bit divorced from the original intention of the practice.

Let’s talk about a small difference that is easiest to perceive. When you are waiting for the subway after get off work, you suddenly stop to feel the touch of the wind on your face and the drumbeat of the music in the headphones. You are not trying to relax and you are not pursuing any effect. This is a miniature mindfulness practice.； But if you deliberately find a deserted corner to sit down, follow the instructions and spend ten minutes to clear your distracting thoughts, and want to relieve the fatigue of work, then this is more like what we often call generalized meditation.