I've been waiting 40 years to
talk with people about their experiences mindfulness.
Of course most folks were not acquaintance with the word, and if they were, it was associated with a spiritual tradition that involved "mindfulness meditation"; they were happy to talk about their tradition and their teacher, but not their experience. I've had more luck with Quakers. They don't call their worship, which is sitting in silence and listening for the "small still voice within", mindfulness, but I experience that and my Buddhist meditation experiences as different parts of a whole.
I've been puzzled because I became familiar with the word and the mindfulness meditation practices from the book:
My question: when you meditate, what happens? Didn't seem to work.
It seems that talking about mindful experiences is difficult. Well, I've come to realize that talking about any personal experience is difficult.
Words seem to be the problem. The words I use to describe my experience do not call up the same experience in you.
Of course most folks were not acquaintance with the word, and if they were, it was associated with a spiritual tradition that involved "mindfulness meditation"; they were happy to talk about their tradition and their teacher, but not their experience. I've had more luck with Quakers. They don't call their worship, which is sitting in silence and listening for the "small still voice within", mindfulness, but I experience that and my Buddhist meditation experiences as different parts of a whole.
I've been puzzled because I became familiar with the word and the mindfulness meditation practices from the book:
 |
My question: when you meditate, what happens? Didn't seem to work.
It seems that talking about mindful experiences is difficult. Well, I've come to realize that talking about any personal experience is difficult.
Words seem to be the problem. The words I use to describe my experience do not call up the same experience in you.
| Mindfulness
is the skill of being aware of what we experience in the present
moment - - for example: noticing the color of the squiggles you are looking at; And how these squiggles cause you to think thoughts, - and these squiggles शिक्षकको कोटामा कर्मचारी probably do not. You can continue, at this moment, practicing mindfulness by noticing sensations in your left foot; then your right hand. That's it, except, that the squiggles on the screen caused thoughts that directed your attention. You didn't. When no one, or no external stimuli is directing your attention, you do. Most of us, most of the time, are not mindful. We are thinking about what we are going to do next or what we did. Like this fellow. For most of us, at first, this is disconcerting or upsetting. But, if this fellow was only playing golf, or working or making love, with his whole attention, how good would that be? Of course, most of us do practice mindfulness in some parts of our lives like gardening, or fly fishing or skiing ... being aware of the sensations in the moment is the joy. But our lives are mostly not composed of those experiences. It's the other experiences, like: Cartoon ....  .... where mindfulness is very helpful. But mindfulness, is helpful not only in dealing with annoyances, anxiety, fear, anger ... you know, difficult, unpleasant experiences, - mindfulness is also helpful in fostering creativity, inspiration compassion. It makes all the moments better, fuller, more vivid, more relaxed, more aware. Mindfulness as a microscope for observing experience. |
Resources |