Is Mindfulness the same as Meditation?

No. Mindfulness is an awareness, a wakefulness, a cultivated attention that can be practised in many situations and contexts.

Meditation can be a useful way of developing and strengthening the particular qualities of mindfulness, but it is not the only way, or even a necessary way.

Perhaps we should forget both of these words which have become so widely tossed around that they cease to be helpful or informative. An arrow that points in every direction points nowhere!

Trouble is, if we invent new words they will in time become just as stale and flabby!

As Hermann Hesse wrote, 'Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little distorted, a little foolish.'