[Gem]

Hi guys


Please take the opportunity for a minutes meditation to create peaceful harmonious conditions withing yourself, your vibe will be beneficial to all others.

Mindfulness does not depend on what tradition or religion you belong to. Just like your breathing is regardless of your tradition, religion, belief or lack thereof, mindfulness is regardless. You can observe breath no matter who you are, and mindfulness is similarly universal. Mindfulness is awarness of the reality as it is in the way you experience it.


It is to be conscious of what is happening and what you are doing as opposed to functioning on unconscious compulsion. We see how people can be compelled by greed, hatred, fear because they are ignorant - as Christ put it, 'they know what they do' - and it is obvious that these negativities cause a great deal of suffering.


Mindfulness is 'knowing what you do'.


The official text on mindfulness says 'as I breath in I know I am breathing in', not because I learned it as knowledge, but because I am aware of my breath moment to moment to moment. If it is a long breath I know the breath is long, and indeed, by being aware of it, I know what the breath is doing in a great deal of detail. The texts say to watch the breath as a skilled wood turner watches his craft, with focus which stays calm, smooth and pays attention to detail(You can google Satipatthana Sutta for yourself if you care to see these references, but please refrain from cut and pasting here).



In just a minute you can't turn an intricate masterful work, but you can a have good sense of observing the intricacy of your experience, and as the mind returns to the actuality of what Is, it becomes slightly calmer and more peaceful. You feel a little bit calmer, and because you feel more serene, your vibe gives serenity to others.

Even though there is breathing, it happens by itself. Don't have to do it. You can notice your breathing and simply be aware of it. Mindfulness involves non-doing, just watching, being aware, just being.

The effort in mindfuless is slightly different to doing, because when you deliberately stop doing and start watching, you will start to notice all the things you do which you don't consciously intend to do. You see the mind is a bit wild. You see how it has formed habits of reaction, agitation, boredom, impatience, which disrupt peace of mind, and you realise, 'this is how I've generated my own suffering all this time', and how you spread that to others.

You can see that I'm not speaking of meditation in terms of god and bliss and wonderful states of mind like most commentators do. I talk about things 'as they are', not 'as we want them to be', because you have to be honest about your actual lived realtity rather yearn for experiences that are not here and now. Mindfulness is always the truth of your reality as it is being experienced by you - from being in truth you have insight into your reality and become wiser.

Indeed, if your experience is God and bliss, then that's your reality, but not someone else's. Each person's reality is 'as it is' just the way they each experience it. You may think the Buddhists are blissfully seated like statues of Buddha, but their real lived experience may well be intense pain and violent emotional storms. The skill these adepts have is not incredible mind state experiences, but the stability of their own presence regardless of what kind of experience they are having. It might be a wonderful mind or sensational state, it might be very turmultuous, but the adept is not rattled easily by high pleasures or discomforts. He remains still either way. This is the way of mindfulness practice, stop, keep still, and watch without moving.

When you take the minutes practice, you will experience a stilling effect, because you have stopped... to watch. Recognise stillness and stay with it regardless of what happens in the experience. Practice stillness and let the experience be.

With generosity, share your stillness with others. It will amplify hearts of loving kindness here, across the world, and throughout the universe beyond.