A
What you’re describing is a very common and useful way to classify meditation. Many traditions do, in fact, distinguish between two broad families of practice:
1️⃣ Focused Attention (Concentration-Based) Practices
These involve intentionally placing the mind on a chosen object and repeatedly returning to it when distracted.
Examples:
Breath awareness (e.g., in Buddhism)
Mantra repetition in Hinduism
Candle-gazing (trataka)
Body scanning (as taught in Vipassana courses)
Centering prayer in Christianity
Core characteristics:
Narrowed attention
Training stability and continuity of awareness
Reducing mental distraction
Strengthening attentional control
Psychologically, this develops attentional stability and reduces mind-wandering.
2️⃣ Open Monitoring / Choiceless Awareness Practices
Here, instead of focusing on one object, you allow all experiences to arise and pass without selecting or rejecting anything. The emphasis is on awareness itself.
Examples:
Open monitoring in insight meditation
Dzogchen in Tibetan Buddhism
Shikantaza (“just sitting”) in Zen
Self-inquiry (“Who am I?”) taught by Ramana Maharshi
The approach of choiceless awareness described by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Core characteristics:
Non-selective awareness
No deliberate narrowing of focus
Observing thoughts, sensations, emotions as they arise
Recognition of awareness itself as primary
Psychologically, this develops meta-awareness and insight into the nature of experience.
Are These Really Two Separate Categories?
At a high level, yes — but in practice, the boundary blurs:
Many systems (especially in Buddhism) begin with concentration (samatha) and transition into insight (vipassana).
Strong concentration often naturally opens into spacious awareness.
Open awareness still requires some degree of stability, which is cultivated by focus.
So rather than two opposing methods, they’re often complementary stages or modes of training attention.
A Deeper Distinction
Another way to frame it:
Object-based meditation → trains the mind.
Awareness-based meditation → reveals the nature of mind.
Both can lead to profound transformation, but they operate differently:
One refines attention.
The other shifts identity from “the thinker” to “the awareness in which thinking appears.”
If you’d like, I can also explain:
The neuroscientific differences between these two modes
How they relate to non-dual realization
Which type may suit different personality types
Or whether one is “deeper” than the other
Where would you like to go next?
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