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Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy
That's why mindfulness meditation is a specific meditation technique. As far as I can determine in essence it's no different than any other technique in that there's an object of attending and when distractions arise notice them, gently let them go and return to attending whatever the object might be.
While it's consciously attending an object the real work is carried out below the conscious by not allowing thought trains to develop and run wild...
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Mindfulness is different to meditations such as mantra because mindfulness involves no imagination or controlling, whereas other meditation methods do. It's the difference between seeing it 'as it is' and 'making it as you want it to be'. That's an important distinction because the cessation of doings is what enables the purification, seeing the truth as experienced by you and disrupts the 'cause' of suffering and bondage in the kammic cycle.
Since mindfulness is always returning to reality 'as it is', objects of sensation including breath and other feelings are suitable, whereas mental fabrications are not. Hence imagined techniques and mindfulness are not only distinctly different, but directly contradictory and incompatible.
Apart from persistently returning to your momentary reality, one also investigates that reality carefully, examines closely or looks deeply. Hencewhy very subtle objects such as sensation or the sound in your ears which were exampled earlier in the thread are suitable for really honing in on the subtler nuances of reality.
I like your approach of 'resting in awareness' just as much, and I like Ramana's self inquiry as well, so I'm not like crazy particular. I'm just elaborating on a couple of the finer points for the sake of interest.
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