It is, in essence:
awareness.
However, there is an
important distinction to make between simply being aware of something that your
doing, and being purposefully “honed in” and aware of your mental processes,
thoughts, and each of your emotional responses as you’re doing something. To be
present in a moment is something that you do automatically, as you are there -
and you are alive, but it is much different to be acutely and keenly aware of
your each of actions in your current experience, and each thought which passes
through the stream of thoughts in your consciousness at that particular moment
in time.
In this mindfulness
state, the intention is not to analyze, but to tune your attention inward to
how you feel and think at this moment, and what exactly, down to every five of
the human senses, are you feeling right now?
Mindfulness in Buddhism
is an essential step on the Eightfold Path. It is an essential
concept in Buddhism, because realizing one’s true nature and the nature of
reality is a fundamental part of finding that indescribable awakening or
enlightenment, as it’s better known. Even when done on a smaller scale, and not
done with the pursuit of enlightenment in mind, one can find more happiness
when they give mindfulness a try. The wide-ranging effect of this process, and
the way in which mindfulness can help a person is put by Thich Nhat Hanh as:
We usually describe
mind consciousness and store consciousness as two different things, but store
consciousness is just mind consciousness at a deeper level. If we look
carefully at our mental formations, we can see their roots in our
store consciousness. Mindfulness helps us look deeply into the depths of our
consciousness. Every time one of the fifty-one mental formations
arises, we acknowledge its presence, look deeply into it and see its nature of
impermanence and inter-being. When we practice this, we are liberated from
fear, sorrow, and the fires burning inside us. When mindfulness embraces our
joy, our sadness, and all our other mental formations, sooner or later we will
see their deep roots. With every mindful step and every mindful breath, we see
the roots of our mental formations. Mindfulness shines its light upon them and
helps them to transform.
Personally, it seems
to me that whether or not the goal of mindfulness is spiritual in a Buddhist
sense, or if it is sought by a person in order to be an act deeply therapeutic
(as is the case with Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy), its
practice seems to be basically the same in its root form either way. According
to the Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax, to practice the basic act of
mindfulness, one must understand and practice that:
With the help of
conscious breathing - breathing and knowing we are breathing - we are able to
touch and be nourished by peace and joy that are available within and around
us, in the here and now. With continued practice, we shall touch and understand
the roots of the pain that lie deep within us, such as fear, anger, despair,
thus making transformation and healing possible.
Its simple. Yet, its
effects run deep. When you are awakened to your own reality, what you are
currently feeling and where you are today and now, it is not unlike a massive
wave of relief - when you are experiencing something good and decent, and you
really come to appreciate it.
But what about a bad
emotion? What about when you feel horrible and you are suffering deeply
internally? When you habitually entrench yourself in mindfulness and you attempt
to maintain a greater awareness about yourself, about life, and it’s details on
a consistent basis - for a lengthy extended period of time, it is my personal
understanding based on what I’ve read, that you are then able to use your own
intelligence to reflect as to why you are feeling this way. At that moment, you
are prompted to ask yourself: How might that be transformed, healed, or
changed? Mental suffering is clearly inevitable to us adults. However, some
suffering is not so much “something that we have to go through,” but is
frequently something that we accidentally choose to go through - as a cause of
our own self-creation by being unaware of it.
If you were to
continue to go through life unaware, then how are you to fix something when you
do not know that it is broken? That is why there must inevitably be some
element of self-reflection and self-awareness, but to take it even further,
would be to use mindfulness of this moment and embrace it genuinely without
judgements as to your current situation. With mindfulness in Buddhism, you are
not supposed to decide whether a moment is good or bad, you are simply supposed
to take it as it is - notice it, and then try to accept it. Which is obviously
easier said than done, but perhaps with habitual practice there will be growth,
and maybe there will be a worthwhile impact on how you interpret the great and
the unfortunate circumstances more so than had you not attempted mindfulness.
As I am just a college
student, and barely not a teenager, I am certainly not an expert, it is just my
own observation that when your experiencing mindfulness, you begin to enjoy
again the moment and why you are there in the first place, or if nothing else,
you at least achieve a greater perspective on the nature of your emotions and
where they are coming from.
Thus, as it states in
several articles written by Buddhists that I have read in the past week on the
subject, when mindfulness becomes a part of your life: you are that much closer
to a bigger awakening, that of your own ability to remove a great deal of the
mental suffering you experience in your life yourself.
Sarah
Works Cited
Bodhipaksa. “What is
mindfulness?” Wildmind. Wildmind Buddhist Meditation, n.d. Web. 12 Feb.
2013.
Hanh, Thich Nhat. The
Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and
Liberation. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Print.
“Mindfulness
Meditation & Practices.” Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax.
N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2013
Shonin. “Mindfulness based therapy and Buddhism.” Ordinary
Extraordinary. Blogger, 02 July 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.
I really appreciate that you quoted Thich Nhat Hanh here. I was able to read some of his works in my doctoral program and I find his words powerful and healing, both.
ReplyDeleteI like how you put mindfulness in perspective toward the end of this piece. This is what I mean when I write to students to "unpack" content. Explain it in context. You do that nicely here--you provide context for your own understanding and application of mindfulness. And I wholeheartedly agree with you. I find that when students sometimes struggle, it's simply because they weren't mindful. They can be highly intelligent but in a rush or unfocused and then they provide products that don't represent their true intentions or best work.
This was an excellent job!