What Is Mindfulness?
What is
mindfulness and what does it mean to you?
Mindfulness
is a shift in the way we pay attention. During that subtle shift our entire
world can transform from the inside out. When it comes to mindfulness there is
simply “understanding “it and there is “knowing” it directly through
experience.
You may
not understand “mindfulness” as a concept yet, but you have already experienced
it. Can you remember a time when you were totally engaged in an activity —
utterly absorbed — you weren’t thinking about the bills, the people bothering
you or the things you have to do later? Every part of your being was focused in
the moment. Maybe you experienced it when a beautiful sunset took your breath
away or felt it spontaneously when you were playing some sport, listening to
some piece of music, or simply alone in nature.
Yogis and
dancers know mindfulness when they lose themselves in the joyful movement of
the body. Artists feel it when they are absorbed in the act of creation. We find
ourselves in these moments when a deep sense of connectedness with life
emerges. Everything that the eye senses is vibrant and radiates with energy and
even a sense of sacredness.
Science
now concurs with what the wisdom traditions have long been telling us; the key
to fulfillment and true happiness lays not in the external circumstances of our
lives, but in the internal — the states of our minds and the quality of
consciousness.
Mindfulness
is the core essence of every wisdom tradition in history. It is the reason for
every spiritual practice ever performed. More importantly it is the key to true
and lasting fulfillment.
There are
three components to mindfulness, three ways in which our attention shifts
gears. Firstly, our attention is held on purpose. Mindfulness involves the
deliberate focused direction of our awareness. It is the opposite of being on
autopilot. Unfortunately, for most of us, autopilot is the normal state of the
mind most of the day. When the mind is on autopilot the mind is very noisy. It
babbles away almost incessantly and continuously. When we practice mindfulness
we allow ourselves to wake up from the dreamlike state of being on autopilot.
It allows us to hold attention where we consciously choose.
The
second aspect of mindfulness is that we are immersed in the present moment. If
we leave our mind to its usual own devices it habitually wanders, even runs
away from the present to ruminate in the past or speculate about the future. We
are very rarely fully present in the moments of our lives. Mindfulness is the deliberate
act of being fully engaged in the present, the here and the now in a present
moment experience.
Thirdly,
when practicing mindfulness our attention is held non-judgmentally. We are not
aiming to control or suppress our thoughts in any way whatsoever. We are simply
intent on being aware of experiences without judging, labeling, or making up
stories about them in any way. Mindfulness, then, allows us to be the “watcher”
of our sensory experience, thoughts and emotions as they arise without getting
caught up in them or swept away by them.
When we
are able to live mindfully we literally transform our world from the inside
out. From that place we are able to live in harmony with our self, with others
and with the world around us.
This is
what mindfulness is. To practice mindfulness to its fullest you are free to
contact any of the Hongaku Sanghas.
“The main
cause of a happy life is within you”, The Dalai Lama.