Being mindful of everything today

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In our dally lives, we should be mindful. What does it mean to be mindful? It means to be fully aware right here, concentrating on what is going on inside. We are looking at something, for instance, and we try to concentrate on that; then a sound comes, and then a smell, then this and then that-distractions, changes. We say: ‘I can’t be mindful of this environment; it’s too confusing. I have to have a special environment where there are no distractions, then I can be mindful. If I go to one of those retreats, then I can be mindful; no distractions there-peace and quiet-noble silence! I can’t be mindful in Edinburgh or London – too many distractions. And I’ve got family, children, too much noise!’

But mindfulness is not necessarily concentrating on an object. Being aware of confusion is also being mindful. If we have all kinds of things coming at our senses-noises, people demanding this and that-we cannot concentrate on any one of them for very long. But we can be aware of the confusion, or the excitement, or the impingement; we can be aware of the reactions in our own minds. That is what we call being mindful. We can be mindful of confusion and chaos. And we can be mindful of peace and tranquillity.

Ajahn Sumeho

Bring a steady attention to all

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The foundation practice for mindfulness is the development of a steady concentration which is able to then hold all things in awareness, both pleasant and unpleasant, without necessarily identifying with them:

The practice of concentration (samadhi) trains the mind’s capacity for being present in the moment,

thus augmenting our ability to bring wise attention to bear as much as possible on the experience.

Andrew Olendzki.

Here I am

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“Hineyni”  for me is the most powerful word in the Book of Genesis. Abraham says it to God. It means “Here I am”, but it is not a geographical answer.  It is the response to the challenge to acknowledge the truth of the present moment, to recognize what needs to be done and to be prepared to do it. Abraham says “Hineyni” three times in the most terrible of circumstances.

Mindfulness is also “Here I am, not hiding” and it is also an expression of freedom. Even when experience is painful, especially when it is dire, mindfulness is freedom from extra anguish, from the extra pain of futile struggle. “This is what is true. These are the possibilities. I understand the necessary response”.  And sometimes “There are no possibilities other than surrender.  I surrender”

Sylvia Boorstein, That’s Funny, you don’t look Buddhist.

Sunday Quote: Where we grow

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Life acquires meaning when we face the conflict

Between our desires and reality

365 Tao

A safe holding environment

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The main trend in the maturational process can be condensed into the different meanings of the word “integration”  Winnicott

As we continue to meditate we see that one thing which we need to develop in order to  increasingly free and happy is the capacity for investigation. Investigation means that we move to see things clearly, just as they are. First we strengthen our capacity for awareness;  then we increasingly investigate the present moment. Our practice a kind of moment-to-moment noting of our ongoing experience, and our reaction to that experience, and allows the coming together of the multiple,  varied and fragmented events which we have gone through in our lives and which still have an impact upon our sensations and our emotions.

This process of awareness and investigation is similar to the holding process which Winnicott said was necessary for ongoing integration. In childhood,  the environment around the baby is of  paramount importance,  allowing  growth as the baby  begins to understand  the differences between itself and others, and not see these differences  as  overwhelming threats. Thus the baby begins a process of integration which continues little by little throughout life. It occurs in the intersection between the body and the mind as the child is able to gradually allow distance to appear between itself and the caregiver, with the caregiver allowing the holding space to grow wider, as the child becomes able to function independently. It develops the ability to be alone, through the presence of others.  The caregiver offers an emotional constancy which  is predictable and consistent, and with the assurance he or she  is  someone who can be reached if needed. In this way, difficult moments can be faced without the child feeling a fear of annihilation.

We echo this in meditation. What happens  is that by sitting silently, and becoming more still in our aloneness,  we develop inside ourselves an increasing capacity to hold in awareness and investigate  the experiences which have left their traces in our body and in our mind. We create a similar holding environment inside ourselves which allows our fears to come out safely and be healed. Meditation is not some escape from our experiences or an artificial haven to run to when times get stressed. It is, rather, a place where we hold the things that scare us, and in holding them, slowly heal them.

The secret of life: Being fully in the moment with our history

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Sometimes meditation practice can be used just to dampen down anxiety or to run away from facing difficult aspects in our lives or our history. As a strategy this is doomed to failure, sooner or later. The only way to full wholeness is to allow all things to be held in awareness, including the parts of ourselves or our life histories that frighten us, the things that disturb our “calm”. As the previous quote from Pema Chodron reminds us, all that comes into our life – including the experiences of our childhood  and subsequent difficult moments – remain in us until they have taught us something and we have integrated the teaching. So our most important practice is allowing and acknowledging all the parts of our life,  thus increasing our capacity to be free in their presence.

If, then, we want to be let in on the secrets  of life, we must be mindful of  two things : first, there is the great melody, in which things and scents, feelings and past events, dawns and dreams, all contribute their part; and second there are the individual voices which augment and complete this full chorus. And to lay the foundation for a work of art — that is, an image a life lived more deeply –  of our more than daily experience — we have to put both voices, – the voice of this moment and the voice of the group of people living within that moment  – into a proper relationship and reconcile them.

Rilke, Notes on the Melody of Things