Am I meditating now?
What is meditation? And how do I know I’m doing it?
Meditation, in the current context, has come to mean the physical discipline of sitting meditation and using techniques to focus the mind. Many people assume Buddhism means physical meditation.
In Mahayana Buddhism, meditation was a tool to allow one to lose the ego (our selfish image of myself) and to find Sunyata (emptiness). And in the traditional schools of Buddhism, meditation was any action that focused the mind (mindfulness).
Almost anything can be a meditation if we are mindful.
However, Buddhists have usually put a strict discipline with these actions. Flower arranging, tea ceremony and the martial arts are examples of how strict disciplines within our actions can lead to Enlightenment.
But for Shin Buddhists, the discipline of physical meditation is not needed. Rather, awareness and the sudden (crosswise transcendence) awakening is our path to Enlightenment. The entrusting heart needed to accept Wisdom and Compassion is a special kind of mindfulness (but we do not call it meditation).