Here is a quote from said article, noting that while there are many techniques, all of them are about fostering awareness:
“Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.”
> such as mindfulness, *or* focusing the mind on a particular object,
and
> to train *attention and awareness*, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.”
You will note the intro distinctly does not say this applies to all meditation, and that awareness is one of 7 different goals mentioned.
It's a shame you didn't continue to read, particularly the section on definition:
> Meditation has proven difficult to define as it covers a wide range of dissimilar practices in different traditions. In popular usage, the word "meditation" and the phrase "meditative practice" are often used imprecisely to designate practices found across many cultures.[19][20] These can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of mind or to teach calm or compassion.[21] There remains no definition of necessary and sufficient criteria for meditation that has achieved universal or widespread acceptance within the modern scientific community.
Why is your tone so angry and condescending? In context, the GP is just saying that cardio and reading is not really equivalent to mediation. He's not wrong.
When someone issues a correction and that correction is absolutely wrong, they are actively causing harm. They went out of their way to be wrong.
Even the word "meditation" comes from a phrase that can mean either quiet reflection on a topic, such as reading, or a deep intense self focus (how we tend to use it).
Exercise absolutely can be a form of meditative practice and there are still monks who do this practice today!
Reading a text and meditating on it, especially in a religious context, is thousands of years old and goes back to the earliest books and book like things we have (eg clay tablets).
This idea that meditation is where you sit and listen to an app and have self awareness is a very modern interpretation. It's not wrong - if that is useful for you, then do it - but to pretend anything that isn't vibing in a darkened room isn't meditation is plain wrong.
> GP is just saying that cardio and reading is not really equivalent to mediation
Both you and GP are incorrect on the most basic of levels. If you insist on correcting others at the very least read the rather good wikipedia page on the topic.
If I say, “EXERCISE is a physical activity” in the context of a discussion about physical exercise, and you say “No, EXERCISE can also be a mental exercise” you are being 100% asinine.
“Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.”