Buddhism: Mindfulness

Buddhism essentially emerged out of Hinduism as the original Buddha – Siddhartha Gautama Buddha – began as a Hindu seeking a release from the cycle of birth, suffering, death and rebirth. After a very long journey trying many different religious and spiritual practices, he finally reached enlightenment sitting under a bodhi tree. From its humble beginnings over 2600 years ago, Buddhism has grown to be the 5^th largest religion in the world. Right now, I’d simply like to take one of their most important concepts (that Christianity lacks) and flesh it out for us.

Meditation is a foundational element of Buddhism. They find it essential in calming the mind so as to go beyond all that is impermanent (our bodies, our stuff, our relationships, our drama, pain, fear) to dwell in that which is permanent. A deeper space where we remember we are One with all of creation.

The problem is, I’m not disciplined enough to meditate every day, and I have a feeling most of us aren’t. However, there is a closely related practice I believe we can all do that is gaining a lot of popularity today: mindfulness. Being mindful means being fully present in the moment. It's about paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. It's about acknowledging the here and now, without getting lost in the past or worrying about the future.

Here is a Zen teaching on the subject:

Yuan once asked his master, Hui Hai,

“What is your practice?”

Hui Hai replied,

“When hungry, I eat; when tired, I sleep.”

“Doesn’t everyone do this?” Yuan asked.

“Yes, but not as I do. When they eat they think of other things; when they lay down to sleep they think of a thousand things. That is how their practice differs from mine.”

Sometimes we do this without even thinking about it. Consider a time you have a deep concentration on what you are doing, so that the monkey in your mind that has been bitten by a scorpion is still for a few minutes. Perhaps it is gardening or art, cooking or making love, listening to a friend, or playing with a child.

In these absorbing moments we may feel peaceful, centered, calm, clear, or complete. Sadly, the habits of our world these days distract us from being present in the moment. The frenetic pace of life, our phones, the sense that we are supposed to be available 24/7 and respond immediately, multi-tasking, overbooking so as not to miss out… all of these things are a resistance to living here now.

Mindfulness can be challenging because it opens you to the full measure of life. It may be easier to be fully present when life is pleasant and fun, but not so much when life is difficult, painful, sad or lonely. Yet, as we acknowledge whatever we are experiencing at the moment – even anxiety, anger, or grief - we are able to give it a nod of recognition, hold it with loving awareness, and treat it gently. As we do this, we open up space to hold everything in life without judgment, and to feel love and compassion grow.

It sounds simple, pay attention to what you are doing and feeling. But it just may be possible that we aren’t always as mindful as we think we are. It’s possible that we don’t always pay as much attention to the moment as we think we do. Buddhist teacher, Geri Larkin, in her book Stumbling Toward Enlightenment, shares about the time she started volunteering at a temple, one of the first chores she was given was cleaning the temple bathrooms. So she did. When she was done, she asked for something else to do, and the person running the temple looked at her and said, “Clean the bathrooms.” Well, she went back and noticed that she had really missed a lot. There was gunk around the edges of the sink and hair in the corner by the door, so she cleaned some more.

For the second time she reported that she was done and asked for another job. And the response a third time was, “Clean the bathrooms.” Geri secretly began wondering if this guy was really some sort of sadistic crazy person. But she went back to the bathrooms and now she noticed the stains on the walls, a glob of soap by the sink, spots on the mirrors and tiny bits of newspaper stuck in its edges where she had rushed through the first cleaning. This time, she took a deep breath and decided to slow down and clean inch by inch. She was amazed at the dirt she found. This time when she went back to say she was leaving the young man walked with her to the bathrooms, looked at them, and smiled. “Wonderful,” he said.

Her takeaway? She learned that paying attention, really paying attention, feels great. Mindfulness forces us to stay open to the situation, watching it unfold so we can respond in a skillful way.

In No Time Like the Present, Jack Kornfield tells a story about a woman named Whitney who was caught up in the challenge of aging parents. Her mother had hip surgery, her father had early-stage Alzheimer's and her brother basically told her to take care of it. So, Whitney took a month off of work, traveled to her parent’s home in Illinois to help. When she got there the house was in a shambles. Her mother needed time to heal and recover and her father was unable to care for himself. They needed much more help and couldn’t afford around-the-clock care. They would have to move.

Feeling overwhelmed, Whitney took a walk up a hillside she’d known since childhood. The thought of her parents moving out of their family home and their dramatic decline was disheartening. She wept as she walked, but when she reached the top of the hill, she sat quietly, calmed herself, and looked across the vast fields stretching to the horizon. Facing this unbounded vastness, she suddenly felt less alone. She could sense how everything has its rhythm – arriving and departing, flourishing and struggling, coming into being and fading away. How many people, she wondered, are in the same predicament we are in right now? As she breathed with more ease, her mind opened further. I am not the only person with aging parents. It is part of the human journey. And as the space within her opened, she felt more trust.

Mindfulness opens us to a broader perspective, helps us to have a spacious, compassionate heart. Gives us strength and resilience and hope. Even when facing something as difficult as death.

So, how do we cultivate mindfulness in our lives?

Perhaps we each need a preset trigger that constantly draws us back to ourselves. Maybe every time we hear a bird singing outside, or every time we open the door to the fridge, or hear the clock chime on the hour, or go to the bathroom, or hear the neighbor’s dog bark, or see a yellow car… we can use that to bring us back to being mindful and showing loving-kindness to ourselves and others.

Or, perhaps we determine that a certain small activity – showering, getting dressed, putting on shoes, eating, doing dishes – will be the time we practice mindfulness. Or use a mindfulness app on your phone to chime every couple of hours and remind you to breathe and be present.

“Our true home,” Thich Nhat Hanh says, “is in the present moment. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment.”

Love & Light,

Kaye