Well really it likely is.
The awake/aware state of calmness.
Detachment from emotional connection to observation. Since this is how it originated. As ancient Greeks pushed philosophy they arrived at it by needing to detach from the experience the discomfort of knowing suffering brings.

So to observe without emotion is essentially to do that thing which we do in meditation.
Silencing the human condition.

Search it up on wikipedia as there's not a great amount of modern study into it. I think this will change going forward because as I said it's a good base because then one can turn on emotion when necessary but not be ruled by the overload a world such as the world we now live in can bring.