Welcome to Wake Up Now! I would like to start this blog with a couple of pithy definitions of mindfulness so that we have some idea of what the general subject is.
Mindfulness has been defined a number of ways. The most direct way to start practicing mindfulness is through sitting meditation, where you become more aware of, or familiar with, your experience of the breath or any other sensory object. Once you are familiar with the simple and direct experience of one thing, like the breath, then you can nurture that awareness and familiarity with other daily life experiences. My teacher, The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, defines mindfulness as "the continuity of awareness". First we have glimpses of awareness of something, and then that can become more continuous, which is called mindfulness.
Mindfulness is also referred to as not forgetting in that we “do not forget what we have heard and contemplated.”* So there is a bit of effort involved sometimes. The opposite of experiencing things directly is to be somewhere else in our minds, such as dwelling in thoughts of the past and future. So mindfulness can also be thought of as the "remembering" to be present. Once we remember we can relax and continue in that state of awareness, which would be further mindfulness.
So I think that is enough theory. I hope not to get bogged down by too many definitions and so on, so the next few posts will be more experiential. For example, this morning I was mindful of how crabby I was. I was driving the kids to school and I was just crabby. I practiced mindfulness by just being aware and letting myself be crabby. I tried not to be too hard on myself by trying to change it or label it and by relaxing into it, I was OK. It was Monday morning after all.
Mike
*Thrangu, Khenchen. Essentials of Mahamudra: Looking Directly at the Mind. Wisdom Publications: Boston, 2004.
