Question

Are there any differences between being mindful and focused?

Answer

Sometimes. It depends on how you use the words. When you think of mindfulness and concentration, concentration is like looking at something, focusing on something, but mindfulness actually knows what you're focusing on. For example -- and this has probably happened to every one of us -- you're reading a book and you see each word. You go through the page and you go through another page and you see each word and you read each word, but by the time you get to the second page, you don't remember what you read. The focus was there, the concentration was there, but no mindfulness. So it depends how you use the word "focus." If your focus is balanced with the mindfulness, great, that's what we'd like to have, the concentration and the mindfulness together.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.