Mindfulness
In Mindfulness: history, technologies, research, applications
Luis Felipe Morales Knight writes: "Just What is Mindfulness?"
"The English word 'mindfulness' names a technique for profoundly changing our relationship
to our thoughts and feelings and the perspective one gains from practicing that technique. It names
a temporary state that is potentially accessible to any human being and a set of permanent traits
that may grow in a person who practices mindfulness.
Mindfulness in action is the endeavor to observe what occurs, with a special focus on the contents
of inner experience, without evaluating, judging, or participating. The majority of our mental and
emotional lives are spent experiencing cognition and emotion as inalienable parts of ourselves: We see angry
people who can't help losing our tempers; we are depressed, or we are anxious, or we have continuous
and inescapable feelings of paranoia, or grief."
Mindfulness practice allows anyone who enters into it to discover the sheer untruth of thse ideas."
On page 108 in his book Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and The World Through Mindfulness Jon Kabat-Zinn
writes in answer to the question, What is Mindfulness:
"According to the Buddhist scholar and monk Nyanaponika Thera, mindfulness is 'the unfailing master
key for knowing the mind and is thus the starting point; the perfect tool for shaping the mind,
and is thus the focal point; and the lofty manifestation of the achieved freedom of the mind, and is
thus the culminating point." Not bad for something that basically boils down to paying attention."
"Mindfulness can be thought of as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention
in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as
openheartedly as possible. Whe it is cultivated intentionally, it is sometimes referred to as deliberate
mindfulness."
On page 110 of Coming to Our Senses" Kabat-Zinn continues:
"The attentional stance we are calling mindfulness has been described by Nyanaponika Thera as 'the
heart of Buddhist meditation. It is central to all the Buddha's teachings and to all the Buddhist
traditions, from the many currents and streams of Zen in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, to the various
schools of vipassana or insight meditation in the Theravada tradition native to Burma, Cambodia,
Thailand, and Sri Lanka, to those of Tibetan (Vajarayana) Buddhism in India, Tibet, Nepal, Ladakh, Bhutan,
Mongolia, and Russia. And now, virtually all of these schools and their attendant traditions have established
firm roots in the cultures of the West, where they are presently flourishing.
Mindfulness - The gateway to peaceful living
by A.J. Mahari
Mindfulness consists of awareness, attention, and focus in the present original
moment. Mindfulness is experienced through mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness
can transform your life from endless suffering to manageable pain and even beyond
to a much more peaceful and calm way of living. Mindfulness is a transforming
conduit for all. Whether you've been sexually abused as a child, have a personality
disorder or other mental illness, Asperger's Syndrome, or you are generally stressed
out as most people are these days, or still harbour the kind of
baggage from your past that gets in the way of your living and functionally fully
in your life in the here and now. Mindfulness is the passage way from your false
self suffering to your authentic self and the fulfillment of your purpose in this
life.
Mindfulness is truly something for all with a universal application.
We all have thoughts and feelings and we all attach limiting meaning
and unwise judgment, all-too-often, to what we think and feel. The very nature of
human thought in an imperfect human condition is the experience of distorted
thought which leads to illogical attached and interpreted meaning and
subsequent feelings with lives of their own if we aren’t aware of them
and paying attention first to our thoughts, and secondly to our feelings. Thoughts
and feelings are the harbingers of action. Lest we not wait until we are involved in
pursuing unaware, unwise and unwarranted action or behaviour before we know it.
Mindfulness through its encouragement to attention and focused awareness can free
us from unenlightened choices that lead to unwanted actions.
When we are mindful we will experience a much calmer and quieter mind that
is focused through awareness in each present moment, not ruminating, not living
in the past, not projecting into the future, not endlessly processing information,
just being in the now. All we really truly have is each unfolding present moment,
one moment at a time.
Being mindful means that we do not judge the moment. We have nothing to protect
ourselves from in the present moment. We can be open to whatever the moment holds for us.
Experience the moment as it is. Whatever we feel or think is okay just as
it is. Observe it. Do not attach yourself to it. Let it be just as you are in
the moment.
We gain incredible awareness by stilling the mind in each moment. The insights
gained can then be strengthened and developed through observing and describing
techniques with a focus of attention on only that which is in this moment.
These gained insights can be the fertile ground from which we learn to realign our
thoughts and feelings in ways that support a much more over-all harmonious approach to
life and result in much more experienced peace and a significant reduction in life-stress.
Mindfulness is the practice of a way or state of being that enhances stress
reduction and enlivens a pulsating sense of what it means to be fully you in
each moment.
The best way to get in touch with this mindfulness and to experience it and
strengthen your awareness of each moment is through the practice of mindfulness
meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is the process of undoing the assumptions we've made
and attached ourselves to through meaning based upon (usually) past negative
experiences and outcomes in our lives. Mindfulness meditation is the pathway
to releasing ourselves from all these mind-made attachments we've developed
that have limited our potential not only to accomplish things, to be more
fully alive, to be more present, to be loving and kind, to live more peacefully
and in a more relaxed manner, but also, most importantly, to fully be the authentic
selves that we were created to be without the artificially imposed limitations of
fear, anxiety, worry, stress, despair, and all of the other negative energies
that we so readily attach ourselves to when we live everywhere but in the present
moment.
In mindfulness meditation the breath is the main focus. The basis of your life
is your breath. Your breath, each breath is a moment lived fully. In living fully
in each and every unfolding moment every aspect of experience is welcomed and
accepted, validated, and when focused upon in fully attentive ways deepens our
awareness from the centre of our being.
Mindfulness meditation catapults us into the role of an impartial observer of
everything that transpires or occurs before our attention. Our intention then,
in a focused and aware manner is to be with what is in each and every present
moment. No more, no less.
Being alive fully in this focused attentive awareness is a state of being
(and can become a way of being) that is radically accepting of what is. It is
only through this radical acceptance of what each moment contains that we can
hope to be aware enough to observe and flow with what is instead of reacting
to all that the present moment isn't.
The manifestation of our awareness of the present moment is culminated in our
willingness to pay attention and be very focused on all that is mindful without
thinking about or interpreting or judging anything. Mindfulness is all about
the awareness of the present moment through observing it. Mindfulness requires that
we do not judge interpret or evaluate anything that may come into our awareness but
rather that we just observe it and be with it as it is in the present moment. Whatever
comes to our attention during our mindfulness meditation is okay and we achieve a
freer and more focused awareness by just letting the thought, feeling, sound, or
what have you just be what it is. Just letting it float in and out of our awareness
as it must.
The more that we practice this mindful awareness without attaching meaning or
interpretation to anything the more we can begin to open wide the possibility and
experience of much greater peaceful living. There is this beckoning and burgeoning
peace within us yearning to be fully experienced. We all know far too much about
turmoil, angst, and the chaotic drama of our fast-paced stressful lives. Mindfulness
is the gateway through which we can detach from this crazy-making health threatening
way of being in the world.
Mindfulness or being mindful is being aware of your present moment. Whatever moment
you find yourself in is the moment that you are meant to be fully aware of as you
experience it.
Each moment is a breath. Each unfolding moment is another breath after another
breath. As each moment passes to the next moment each breath is replaced by the next
breath. Each breath heralds a new moment. Like ocean waves gently rolling up against
the ocean's shore, ceaselessly, effortlessly. Just be aware of your breath. Breathe.
You can choose to be mindful. You can choose to be more fully who you are. You are simply
you in this moment. You are there in the present moment with no other purpose than being
fully awake and aware of that moment. Giving that moment all the detached attention it fully
deserves because you are and it is what it is. Accept that.
When we are living mindfully we accept what just is because it is without attaching or
ascribing limiting meaning to whatever is. We can then experience and know a peaceful
way of being that not only reduces stress and eclipses negative energy but that in
our mindful awakening moment by moment brings us to the positive experience of being
more fully who we are. What peace there is in this mindful way of being.
The peaceful living that one can come to know fully through mindfulness and mindfulness
mediation gifts us with never before clarity and understanding that frees us to be able
to detach from suffering through radical acceptance.
Mindfulness is the gateway of freedom through which we can transcend suffering and
put in its place a much more peaceful way of living. A way of being that is accepting
of what is. A way of being that can mean the difference between endless suffering
and transforming all that has been suffering into a peaceful acceptance that leaves
us with, at worst, manageable pain, and at best the experience of calm, bliss, joy,
happiness and a sense of well-being and of being one with your authentic self, your
true purpose in life and the universe as a whole.
© Ms. A.J. Mahari July 15, 2005
Mindfulness and Meditation Books
Jon Kabat-Zinn Books & Tapes or CDs
Mindfulness Books & Tapes or CDs
Meditation Books & Tapes or CDs
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as of July 15, 2005
This page is © 2005-2008 A.J. Mahari & was last up-dated October 14, 2008
