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An exploration by Gina Hajdu
What is mindfulness meditation? A simple answer might
be that this form of meditation is a conscious practice to focus one's
entire awareness on one's present moment. In doing so, we release
all unnecessary tension and activity from our bodies and minds, realizing
the point of stillness within ourselves. Sometimes, we love the
present so much that without effort we focus all our attention on it
and this can become a spontaneous meditation. So absorbed can we
become in our favourite activities, that hours may pass and we are blissfully
unaware of their passing. We may observe children practicing mindfulness
meditation when completely absorbed in their model airplane building
or while solving a difficult puzzle. In this way, almost everyone
can say they have experienced mindfulness meditation at some point in
their lives.
You might ask yourself, 'If I'm not in the present moment, then where am I?' Take
a moment now and observe how often your thoughts spiral off into the anticipated
future, thumb through a past event or stand and judge. It's the chaos
of uncontrolled mental activity that takes us out of the present moment and
all the richness to be had in it. It might be said that we're missing
out on our very lives because we're usually off somewhere else in our minds. Mindfulness
meditation can restore our lives to us, enabling us to savour life in every
moment. "To enter into the awareness of Zen, to 'wake up', means to cleanse
the mind of the habitual disease of uncontrolled thought and to bring it back
to its original state of purity and clarity." Philip Kapleau 1
Without mindfulness, how many would miss this experience in the ordinary act
of sipping coffee:
"Scalding coffee from a freezing cup.
At the rim no telling Which is which."
Lou Hartman 2
Mindfulness is described as "the energy that sheds light on all things and all
activities producing the power of concentration, bringing forth deep insight
and awakening." 3 How then do we practice this mindfulness meditation,
this 'getting out of our own way' to come into the present? Focusing one's
attention on a single subject sounds easy enough, but to the often over-stimulated,
undisciplined mind, this can feel near impossible to accomplish for longer
than a few seconds at a time. Many experienced meditators like Zen master
Thich Nhat Hanh suggest that simple awareness of our own breath as it naturally
moves in and out of our bodies is enough to provide singular focus for our
attention. "By concentrating on our breathing, "In" and "Out", we bring
body and mind back together, and become whole again." 4 If the attention
wanders off, we can gently and repeatedly bring it back to our own breath. The
beauty of this simple practice is that our breath is always with us in the
present moment, and it becomes clear that no special equipment is required
for mindfulness meditation but persistence. Indeed simple conscious breathing,
mentally saying "in" to ourselves on the inhalation and "out" to ourselves
on the exhalation can be done while waiting in a supermarket check-out queue,
or sitting in traffic. This practice effectively breaks up the habit
of unnecessary thinking giving us a refreshing haven of peace in our day.
Extending mindfulness meditation to other activities in our lives can bring
our full awareness into each task that we perform. The intention is not
to avoid thinking, but rather to fully focus our attention on our present,
and therefore whatever is happening in that present. When Buddhist student
Peter Matthiessen asks his teacher, "..should I struggle to empty out my mind?" he
receives the answer, "There is no such thing as empty mind. There is only present
mind." 5 Freed from extraneous thoughts, mental energy is used efficiently
and we can enter the subtle joys of even the simplest of chores.
How might the evening washing up be experienced if we were mindful of the activity? We
would feel our own breath moving softly in and out of our bodies. We
might be aware of a pleasant fullness in our stomachs from our dinner. We
would be aware of the silky water on the skin of our hands and feel its temperature.
Our mouths might curve into the slightest smile at the sight of iridescent
soap bubbles on the surface of the water as they catch the light. The
weight of the ceramic plate in our hands would contrast with its smooth and
slightly slippery surface. What sound does the rough sponge make when
we wipe it on the wet plate? Perhaps we can hear the soft sigh of the
water parting as we slip the cutlery in the kitchen sink to soak. How
unlikely it would be to drop a plate accidentally as we mindfully place
it on the rack to dry. Such a simple task as washing our dinner dishes
can offer much in the way of a rich experience if we give it our full attention. Fortunately,
our lives are full of many opportunities to perform simple tasks with mindfulness.
Mindfulness enables us to experience reality. Reality is experienced
directly, not through thought or speech. We could describe the experience
of washing the dishes, or think about it, but this will always be different
than the reality of placing our hands in the soapy water. In fact, thought
and speech would seem to get in the way of deeply experiencing the washing
of the dishes, as we search our minds for appropriate words and lose our attention
to the direct experience. "Life is only available in the present. We
need to return to this moment to be in touch with life as it really is." 6
Our continued mindfulness becomes unselfconscious and we lose ourselves in
our awareness of our subject. In fact, we don't "lose ourselves" as the
saying goes, but rather lose that which is not ourselves. How can we know the
difference between self-conscious mind and unselfconscious mind? In
the book Essential Zen, Toni Packer describes self-conscious mind thus, "Having
an image of oneself and of what one should do or should not do creates duality
and has nothing to do with undivided attention to what actually is taking place." 7 When
we experience unselfconscious mind, there is no sense of self as separate
from the subject of attention. "We arise like a wave out of the ocean
of life, our tentative forms still one with the ocean. Some traditions call
this the Tao, the divine, the fertile void, the unborn." 8 In becoming
unselfconscious, we actually experience pure consciousness that exists without
need of name or adjective and in so doing, know ourselves.
"Awakened within a dream,
I fall into my own arms.
..What kept you so long?"
Lou Hartman9
1. Hanh, 1995. Zen Keys. Doubleday, New York.
2. Tanahashi & Schneider, 1996. Essential Zen. Castle Books, New Jersey.
3. Hanh, 1995. Zen Keys. Doubleday, New York.
4. Hanh, 1992. Peace is Every Step. Bantam Books, New York.
5. Tanahashi & Schneider, 1996. Essential Zen. Castle Books, New Jersey.
6. Hanh, 1993. The Blooming of a Lotus. Beacon Press, Boston.
7. Tanahashi & Schneider, 1996. Essential Zen. Castle Books, New Jersey.
8. Kornfield, 1993. A Path With Heart. Bantam Books, New York.
9. Tanahashi & Schneider, 1996. Essential Zen. Castle Books, New Jersey.
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