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Are you mindful?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
in Mindfulness
It is fashionable at the moment to be mindful. How easy, successful is it?
Moment by moment being, free of clinging to experiences is in some ways the ideal Buddhist state (not to be confused with Islamic State).
Personally I find myself more mindless than mindful and therefore value the mind training of formal practice orientated around stillness, breathing, chanting etc.
In a sense I would class myself as more 'minded' or aware, awake, discerning, attentive when in the Ideal. The butterfly mind that flits from light to flower, is more conscious than the monkey mind that is led by [insert distraction]. However the Ideal State or crazy camel or Buddha Being is a hard cross even for gods relatives to bear ...
Are you mindful?
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I would say I am mindful.
I am very present to every second of -at least- my waking life.
Even when I am unskillful, when I react, when I choose to be imperfet, I am mindful.
I breathe through past memories, I breathe though worries.
And the breath always anchors me back into the present moment.
am i mindful ? not all the time. i use two basic tecniqe.one tecniqe,is the mahyahna approach,pause and reflect,what tools i need for work in the morning. the second technique,the the theravada approach, recall or recollect about stuff and dharma.also instinctual awareness.it adds up in brain cognition,little by little.
I am not able to delve into a deep practice right now but the small mindfulness I have acquired has helped me greatly. Which just shows how powerful Buddhism is even in small doses.
Yes - oh, amen to that. Love how you put it, reminds me of when I very first made efforts and how great and wondrous it felt...lately, I've fallen off the wagon so to speak, and I gotta get back.
Am I mindful? When I work at it.
Mindful doesn't mean 'aware'.
Mindfulness means being deliberate in Thought Word and Deed.
Mindfulness is Pausing.
Being unskilful is not being Mindful.
Even if you notice it, to continue being unskilful is not ... skilful....
Just my opinion, of course....
I think you are mostly right, but I think being aware is part of being mindful.
Yes, I agree....
Part, maybe.
Not 'All'....
Totally agree. Some just never get to the next step.
Sylvia Boorstein says that:
My personal opinion is that being mindful is being present in the moment, one with the moment, and with whatever it presents.
The nice and the ugly.
Going with the flow of life, beyond any judgement or label, or better said, without judging nor labelling it.
Maybe yes, mindfulness should call for more response rather than reaction.
But we can still accept and embrace the present experience in its imperfection.
Aye caramba! We are meant to work at it? I have been letting mindfulness rest ...
I done gone wrong again?
Of all the snippets of info, articles and discussions about mindfulness practice, I never got the impression that it was a means to an end, it was the end or something like that. It was for its own sake, if that makes sense.
Does not quite make sense @silver. Perhaps you can explain in some other way?
Mindfulness is very much a continuation of formal practice.
It can be a 'starting from practice' but the aspects of focus and attention may require more formal training/effort ...
I suppose what I said was "yes" and what you said is "but..." if that makes sense.
I haven't been in a position to get formal training, so it benefits me only as far as my exposure to the printed word and yt videos takes me.
Sometimes, we can only make sense from where each is coming from.
Understood @silver
That makes more sense.
Here is the heretical 'get out of mindfulness free card'
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/actually-lets-not-be-in-the-moment.html
... however/but the ability and utilisation of the realms of the mind is not lost by practice, if anything it is intensified or if you prefer we are more mindful of its being ...
http://paidtoexist.com/enlightenment-is-overrated/
Who would have thought ...
With sati in mind... yes tis hard to forget
"“And what is the faculty of sati? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, is mindful, highly meticulous, remembering & able to call to mind even things that were done & said long ago. (And here begins the satipatthana formula:) He remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves... the mind in & of itself... mental qualities in & of themselves — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.”"
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/mindfulnessdefined.html