Mindfulness vs meditation, and where Vipassana fits

Mindfulness vs meditation is partly a question of words. Meditation is the broad name for many practices that train attention and the mind. Mindfulness is one quality those practices use, called sati in the Pali texts, and since 1979 it has also been the name of secular programmes such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Vipassana, or insight meditation, is one kind of meditation from the Buddhist traditions. It relies on mindfulness, but its stated aim is to see that experience is impermanent, unsatisfactory and not self.

In short:

• Meditation is the family: breath awareness, mantra, loving-kindness, insight and more.
• Mindfulness is a quality of attention, in a sitting or on the stairs, and the name of programmes such as MBSR and MBCT.
• Vipassana trains mindfulness to see impermanence, suffering and not-self. Its partner, samatha, trains calm.
• Insight meditation is the English name for Vipassana, and the name of a Western movement that teaches it.

This page sets out each term from its own sources, without ranking the practices.

Mindfulness vs meditation: the difference

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says: "The term 'meditation' refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being." Some types hold attention on one thing, "such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra". Mindfulness is listed as another form, which "involves maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments".

So mindfulness meditation is one kind among many, and repeating a mantra is meditation too. In the other direction, not all mindfulness is meditation. The NHS describes mindfulness as "paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment", with an example as ordinary as "the feel of a banister as we walk upstairs". It treats sitting as a separate, formal step: "Mindfulness meditation involves sitting silently and paying attention to thoughts, sounds, the sensations of breathing or parts of your body".

The overlap, then, is mindfulness meditation: a sitting practice in which mindfulness is the thing being trained.

Meditation in the Pali texts

The Pali word usually translated as meditation is bhāvanā, "mental cultivation or development" in Access to Insight's glossary. The early texts used it for many practices. In the Ānāpānassati Sutta (MN 118), the Buddha describes monks committed to the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, to meditation on love, compassion, equanimity and impermanence, and to mindfulness of breathing, among others. Mindfulness is one item on a long list.

What mindfulness means in the Buddhist texts

Sati comes from Vedic smṛti. The Pali Text Society's dictionary gives a range of meanings that begins with "memory, recognition, consciousness" and includes "wakefulness of mind, mindfulness, alertness, lucidity of mind". Access to Insight's glossary gives "mindfulness, self-collectedness, powers of reference and retention".

Right mindfulness is the seventh factor of the Eightfold Path. The Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22) defines it as the four satipaṭṭhānas: observing the body, feelings, the mind and principles, "keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world" (Bhikkhu Sujato's translation). Right immersion, or concentration, is a separate factor, which the same discourse defines as the four jhānas. In the texts, then, mindfulness is one quality within a wider training, not the whole of it. The four foundations of mindfulness explains each of the four.

The English labels overlap too: Sujato titles MN 10 simply "Mindfulness Meditation".

Mindfulness as a programme: MBSR and MBCT

Since the late 1970s, "mindfulness" has also been the name of secular courses. UMass Memorial Health says Jon Kabat-Zinn developed MBSR at UMass Memorial Medical Center in 1979. Its Center for Mindfulness quotes his definition: "Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom."

Brown University's MBSR course runs for eight weekly sessions of about two and a half hours, plus an orientation and one all-day session, with daily practice at home using recordings. Participants learn mindful eating, a body scan, sitting meditation and yoga done lying down. Brown introduces it as "the secular practice of mindfulness" and calls MBSR "nonsectarian".

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was, in UMass Memorial Health's words, "developed for people living with recurring depression and related mood disorders". NCCIH says it "integrates mindfulness practices with aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy". The NHS notes that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends mindfulness-based therapies as a way to treat less severe depression.

What the research shows for these programmes, and why it cannot simply be carried over to Vipassana retreats, is covered in what research says about Vipassana.

Why the words get mixed up

Researchers find the terms confusing too. A 2018 review by Nicholas Van Dam and 14 co-authors calls mindfulness "an umbrella term used to characterize a large number of practices, processes, and characteristics", with "neither one universally accepted technical definition" behind it.

Meditation is just as broad. Under current usage, the authors write, "a 5 minute meditation exercise from a popular phone application might be treated the same as a 3-month meditation retreat (both labeled as meditation)". They ask researchers, teachers and the media to say exactly what is being taught. The rest of this page tries to do that for Vipassana.

Where Vipassana fits

Vipassanā is a Pali word usually translated as "insight". Access to Insight defines it as "clear intuitive insight into physical and mental phenomena as they arise and disappear", seen in terms of three characteristics: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering) and anattā (not-self). dhamma.org, in S. N. Goenka's tradition, puts it as "to see things as they really are". What is Vipassana? explains the word and the traditions that teach it.

Mindfulness is the means here, and insight the aim. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta asks the meditator to observe, in each object, "the liability to originate, to vanish, and to originate and vanish" (Sujato). Mahasi Sayadaw's Satipatthana Vipassana describes where his noting practice leads: perceiving that everything "passes away at the very point of noting", the meditator "knows that nothing is permanent", which he calls "the contemplative knowledge of impermanence". In his account, mindfulness, concentration and knowledge develop together "by stages".

Goenka's courses frame it in three steps, as dhamma.org describes them. Students keep five moral precepts, sīla, for the length of the course. They fix attention on the natural breath, and "by the fourth day the mind is calmer and more focused". Then comes Vipassana itself: "observing sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them".

Samatha: the calm side

The early texts pair insight with samatha, calm. A short discourse, AN 2.31, names two things that "play a part in realization": serenity and discernment. Developing serenity develops the mind, and greed is given up. Developing discernment develops wisdom, and ignorance is given up.

Mindfulness serves both. Mahasi Sayadaw names mindfulness of breathing, with loving-kindness and kasiṇa meditation, among the methods of tranquillity meditation (samatha-bhāvanā) that lead to the absorptions. The last four of the sixteen steps in MN 118 turn the same breath practice towards insight: the meditator breathes "observing impermanence", then fading away, cessation and letting go. Traditions differ on how much calm is needed before insight, and samatha and Vipassana sets out their answers.

Is Vipassana the same as mindfulness?

Not quite. In the mindfulness vs Vipassana question, one is a quality and the other a practice that uses it. They overlap, but:

• Mindfulness is a quality; Vipassana is a practice with a goal. Vipassana depends on mindfulness, but mindfulness also serves calm meditation and secular programmes with other aims, such as managing stress.
• The settings differ. An MBSR course meets weekly for eight weeks while people live ordinary lives. A Goenka course is residential: dhamma.org describes days from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. with about ten hours of meditation, and "noble silence" for the first nine full days.
• One is offered as therapy, the other says it is not. MBCT was developed for people with recurring depression. dhamma.org says that "Vipassana meditation is not a treatment or therapy", and that its teachers and volunteers are not medical, psychological or counselling practitioners.

The FAQ gives a short answer too.

Is insight meditation the same as Vipassana?

As a translation, yes: "insight meditation" is the usual English for Vipassana. Written with capitals, Insight Meditation is also the name of a Western movement of lay teachers and retreat centres, described on Insight Meditation in the West.

Spirit Rock Meditation Center, one of these centres, calls its practice "a simple technique which has been adapted from the vipassanā tradition". It says the purpose is "to strengthen mindfulness (sati)", and notes that "oftentimes Insight Meditation is referred to as Mindfulness Meditation". This is one reason the three names are used for the same thing.

Methods differ under the shared name. Spirit Rock's introduction rests attention on the breath and softly names whatever carries it away ("planning", "remembering"). Goenka's courses move from the breath to sensations throughout the body. Mahasi Sayadaw's method begins by noting the rising and falling of the abdomen. The comparison of traditions sets out how they differ.

Meditation, mindfulness and Vipassana side by side

	Meditation	Mindfulness	Vipassana (insight meditation)
What it is	A family of practices that train attention and the mind	A quality of attention (sati); also the name of secular programmes	A Buddhist meditation practice that uses mindfulness to see experience clearly
Examples	Breath awareness, mantra, visualisation, loving-kindness, insight	Mindful eating or walking; mindfulness meditation; MBSR and MBCT	Goenka's 10-day courses; Mahasi noting; Western insight retreats
Stated aim	Varies; NCCIH says "to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being"	Present-moment awareness without judgement; in MBSR, working with stress	Insight into impermanence, suffering and not-self; the traditions name liberation as the goal
How it is learned	Many settings	Daily life, classes, eight-week courses	Mostly silent residential courses and retreats with a teacher
Religious framing	Depends on the tradition	MBSR calls itself secular and nonsectarian	Taught within Buddhist traditions; dhamma.org says it "is not a religion"

Trying them, and staying safe

Breath awareness is common ground: Ānāpāna describes how each tradition uses it, with simple guidance for beginners. For Vipassana itself, the traditions ask that it be learned on a course from a teacher. The centre directory lists centres by country.

Neither word is a promise of benefit. The NHS says mindfulness is "not right for everyone", and that some people find it "can make them feel worse". NCCIH reports a 2020 review in which about 8 per cent of participants had a negative effect from meditation, and advises: "Don't use meditation or mindfulness to replace conventional care". dhamma.org asks applicants to share their mental health history. If you have a health condition, speak to the course organisers and a doctor before an intensive course.

For daily sitting at home, Clean Pomodoro, a free Vipassana meditation and Pomodoro timer for iPhone and Android, has timers for Vipassana and ānāpāna sittings and for study or work. You set the length, sit in silence, and a gentle voice cue marks the end. Keep its calm and nature sounds for study, work or rest, not for the sitting itself.