Mindfulness

Mindfulness, the direct awareness of present perceptions, is one of the primary wonders of being fully human. Yet our ordinary mode of being lies somewhere below the level of mindfulness, with a largely unrecognized but terrible cost. With inadequate mindfulness we live a shortened and impoverished life. Shortened in the sense that we experience less if we are not in a state of mindfulness. Impoverished in the sense that what we do experience remains less vivid, less alive, less real. Mindfulness is the authentic state for a human being: a relaxed, open awareness of our inner and outer perceptions in this moment.

While mindfulness may be the birthright of all humans, to our misfortune we sell it cheaply. We spend the great majority of our time unmindfully, our awareness non-voluntarily collapsed to some minute fraction of the whole, drifting along in a passing reverie or TV or radio, captured by anger, envy, lust, boredom, fear, or greed. Our lives go on without us. Time passes us by, leaving us unmoved, unfilled, unaware. Fortunately, the remedy for our situation exists. And it is an easy one, easy but requiring perseverance.

Coming to, bringing our awareness back to the riches of this one moment can be as simple as basing ourselves in awareness of bodily sensations, in the breath, or in consciousness itself. We can readily enter mindfulness, at least for a moment or two. The more often we try it, the more we acquire a taste for it, and the longer we are able to stay in it.

Mindfulness means being aware of the constantly changing cavalcade of thoughts, emotions, sensations, sights, sounds, tastes, and aromas, without becoming lost or attached. We become the stream rather than the sticks, leaves, and other debris carried by it. Mindfulness can also be called choiceless awareness, to emphasize its non-clinging, non-grasping, open quality. Mindfulness is inherently compassionate, both toward ourselves and toward others. If we do not reject what we see in ourselves, if we can just open into the seeing, our heart also begins to open toward our neighbor.

Mindfulness can be grounded in the sensations of body or breath, or in consciousness itself. These can serve as our home base while seeing the flow of experience. To practice mindfulness we begin by finding that comfortable home within ourselves, e.g., in awareness of bodily sensations or the breath. Then we allow our awareness to expand to include any and all other elements of our current experience, while maintaining awareness of our home base. When we notice, inevitably, that we have become attached, clinging to or rejecting some thought, emotion, pain, etc. and collapsed into it, we gently and gratefully return to bodily sensations or the breath and start again. Repeat until mindfulness becomes our normal way of being. In quiet moments we return fully to basic mindfulness itself: unencumbered, without boundaries, featureless, whole, the background of all experience.

The enormous dividends of this simple practice more than repay our efforts. On a personal level, mindfulness dramatically enriches our quality of life and offers healing, meaning and wholeness. On the level of the Earth, mindfulness opens us to a profound connection with other people and all of life. On the universal level, the practice of mindfulness serves the Great Whole.

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