You didn’t have to be learned, live in a monastery or have extraordinary experiences in order to practice mindfulness:

Bankei was approached by a priest who boasted that his master possessed miraculous powers.

This master could take a brush and write Amida in the air and the word would appear on a sheet of paper in the distance.

Challenged to equal this, Bankei replied, “My miracle is that when I feel hungry I eat, and when I feel thirsty I drink.”