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Mindfulness
I saw this word many times on this forum. To understand it better, I goggled it and got many meanings of the word.
What does the mindfulness means to you?
What does the mindfulness means to you?
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Your in a bar and it's loud and everybody is talking. A song is playing but it's barely noticeable. You think it might be "Smells like teen spirit" by Nirvana....but you can't be sure. So you take a deeper look....you focus your perception so as to decipher how the song sounds like amidst all the noise.....when you do that, you are being mindful.
It's making the mind...full...with something. A sound, a sight, a smell, a feeling, a thought.....just that one thing filling your whole perception. So much so that while you are concentrated on it, you are pretty much oblivious to everything else that is happening "outside" of that.
I understand your confusion. This is a very good question indeed. It is very useful to know what mindfulness actually is so you can start using it in your life so let me try to explain it:
The term mindfulness is often interchanged with the term concentration (I do this too, sometimes) and that's why there are so many things to be found on the internet and on this forum. For example, one can have a very good concentration, but use that concentration to focus on false play in a gambling game or to have perfect aim when shooting someone :P. That is good concentration, but bad mindfulness.
Mindfulness is to be able to notice what goes on in the mind. It notices thoughts and it sees why you do things. When developed, you can start to being more free from worries, lying and anger. Those things simply don't arise in the mind anymore that often, but when they do, mindfulness notices it and gives you the opportunity to act accordingly. That's why the 5 precepts are so important, they are supporting right mindfulness. Try to keep them very strict and you'll see what mindfulness is. It is like an alarm that goes of when a burglar tries to enter. The burglar being a lie or thought of taking something that is not given, for example. Sometimes some people don't even notice their intention of lying and they already said it before they actually thought about it.
Meditation is both a combination of mindfulness and concentration. Concentration is trained by aiming our focus still at one thing, like the breath or metta. In the shallow end of meditation, mindfulness is the thing that says "You are not watching the breath", when you get distracted. When you are deeper, mindfulness will notice even the slightest unwholesome states or thoughts that try to slip into mind. Sometimes when you are meditating, you can be awake and concentrated, but mindfulness is not very active, it's still snoozing. So then you start thinking about what you want for diner tonight, you are totally forgetting you should be meditating..
When well developed, right mindfulness is with you 24/7, always looking over your shoulder at what you are doing, noticing every habit or tendency. You can actually be mindful the whole day long, while concentration mostly occurs during meditation.
But in good meditation they go hand in hand. Mindfulness gets stronger when concentration is stronger and the other way around. Right mindfulness can be trained by aiming the concentration at the body, the thoughts, your feelings, no self, etc. but that's deeper teachings.
I found this for you:
http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english_16.php
Sabre
Again, this is a great food for thought and I need a bit of time to digest it.
Namasti
For example, before retiring I was a school principal. Let's say that I had observed a teacher's lesson and it was bad. And so, I had to plan the post-conference. I planned the conference by being mindful. What was I attempting to accomplish in the post-conference. It was a bad lesson that it was just a fluke? That I had some suggestions that could lead to improvement? Or things are so bad -- including that lesson -- that we may be moving toward dismissal? Then I would try to be mindful of how this particular person might react. How could I make the conference successful in terms of my goals. And then, during the conference, I tried to really focus on my goals and, at the same time, the reactions of the teacher. I used similar strategies with difficult parent conferences. And I found that when I was mindful, my conferences tended to be quite successful. Sometimes I wasn't mindful...perhaps I didn't realize the gravity of a situation...and then, sometimes, my conferences were less successful.
There was an interesting little book I used to have...something along the lines of "Buddha In The Workplace" (although I doubt that's the correct title (but you get the gist). It really taught the right lessons about being mindful at work.
Of course, being mindful works in many situations.
Like a camera, recording everything but being neutral to what is happening.
Basically pay attention, not only to the external world but to what's going on in your own head. Be aware of what you are thinking, saying and doing (your karma).
But...there is "Right" Mindfulness and "Wrong" Mindfulness...I don't think "being in a bar" is really the best example of being mindful...at least not "Right" Mindfulness.
Metta,
Guy
I associate it primarily with paying attention, specifically using the four foundations of mindfulness descrited in the Satipatthana Sutta, ie body, feelings, mind-state and mind-objects.
There is also the added dimension of clear comprehension, ie seeing things clearly so that we act in a more skillful way.
P