Mindfulness vs Self Inquiry

randomguy

I just want to clear something up for myself, is "mindfulness" in anyway similar to what Ramana describes as holding on to the "I" thought?

SherabDorje

Many Hindu teachers teach something similar to Buddhist meditation. It would be a simple matter of contemplating the "I" thought until its full insubstantiality is realized.

randomguy

so they are in fact two different meditations?


because I know in one of Ramana's books titled Be As You Are, the title sounds awfully similar to mindfulness or just "being".

SherabDorje

There are a few different types of meditation that are common to Buddhism and Hinduism. Simple Vipassana meditation is directed toward calming the mind and observing whatever thoughts arise and just letting them pass without grasping. There is another type, the name of which escapes me at the moment, that involves developing the calm mind of Vipassana, but then taking up an object such as "I" and observing its insubstantiality.

So yes, it's a slightly more involved type of meditation than Vipassana. But again, there is more than one type of meditation, some with objects of contemplation, like "I", or generation of specific states, like compassion, and some with no particular object, like Vipassana.