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Can someone explain how one is to be mindful all the time or on anxiety, irritation and so on?
DaltheJigsaw
Mountain View Veteran
The concept of wasted time does not exist for a serious meditator. Little dead spaces during your day can be turned to profit. Every spare moment can be used for meditation. Sitting anxiously in the dentist's office, meditate on your anxiety. Feeling irritated while standing in a line at the bank, meditate on irritation. Bored, twiddling you thumbs at the bus stop, meditate on boredom. Try to stay alert and aware throughout the day. Be mindful of exactly what is taking place right now, even if it is tedious drudgery. Take advantage of moments when you are alone. Take advantage of activities that are largely mechanical. Use every spare second to be mindful. Use all the moments you can.
From: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe15.html
From: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe15.html
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Practice in the midst of mental phenomena like anxiety and irritation starts with a disidentification from them: there is anger rather than I'm angry, etc. At that point, it's just like watching the breath.
Sorry- just couldn't help it...
Leon's idea that every moment can be dedicated towards furthering our practice reminds me of something I read about Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche. It seems that most of the time he was praying. As he crossed a threshold leaving a house, he'd say to himself, "I'm opening the door to enlightenment." As he closed the door, he'd say, "I'm closing the door on ignorance and ego." And thus he'd go about his day, designing a sort of mantra for every step, every gesture. Pretty inspiring!
At first I was not sure what you were saying and then you mentioned watching the breath and then it made all the sense in the world...:)
Also I read that mindfulness isn't just bare awareness but bare awareness plus concentration.
Those two thoughts have NOTHING to do with mindfulness. The mindfulness is the natural uncreated ability of the mind to come to notice what it is doing. Developing mindfulness is a linking in noticing, aligning with, honoring, and celebration of that quality. It is like when we dance in joy a lot that joy will rise up more often and we feel like dancing. But that joy wasn't created by dancing it was always in us and it could be released by painting music sunbeams and cats and dogs.
Mindfulness is the balance of clarity and sensitivity. Clarity is the balance of 'energy' and 'concentration'. Often people mistake Mindfulness itself as concentration but that is just one factor. Sensitivity is the balance of intelligent messsages and investigation (prajna) and letting the learning become embodieed in us (faith). Clarity is another word for awareness and it points to the field sharpening and diffusing. Clarity has one vibe to it and awarenesss anotehr. Sensitivity is the heart response we give back and the feeling of wholeness which when distorted can feel crappy boring or whatever.
Besides meditation on those things, I also use to challenge myself. Stand in the longest line in the supermarket or wait at the green traffic-light and meditate on the feeling of restlessness. Wear funny clothes and meditate on the feeling I get when other people look at me. (99% of the time they don't even notice) Be alone for a week and meditate on the feeling of being alone when it arises.
All those things can be very, very helpful. Or at least they have been to me.
Be eccentric
I try to be mindful as much as I can, but sometimes I just don't feel like it. :P
Today I say to myself, self I say, you practice mindfulness all the time: more so since you have aged. For instance, when I was young frustration would often accompany a difficult task . I grew older and realized, reasoned, that the task needed doing and my attitude did not have to go to the frustration place.
A good tool I use is , more when I am feeling frustrated than elated( though perhaps I should use the tool in this latter case too) is to ask my self ," How are you feeling?" I believe it creates a mindful state and ,somewhat mechanically, causes me to seek the source of my unease and slay (subdue, for you gentle souls) it so to speak.
Further, now I often ask upon encountering another person who seems ill at ease ," How do they feel?"
I am like a beautiful, peripatetic flower.
(You know how when you write and then reread you should , I am advised, toss out the sentence you like the best? I should have dumped the flower comment but just could not.)