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Originally Posted by Gem
What we now call 'mindfulness' in modern meditation and psychotherapy are variations on the Buddhist meditation called 'insight' or 'vipassana'. The basic outline of this modality can be found in the satipatthana sutta.
However, one can't simply leap forth into the practice without establishing some foundations, so I want to talk about the foundations first, before discussing the underlying aspects of the meditation itself.
There is a primary fundamental and a secondary fundamental, and these are morality and organisation. Morality (sila) is crudely outlined in the 'precepts' which are simplistic rules concerning lying, stealing, killing and so forth, but of course, apart from simple abeyance, there are deeper aspects of nature from which these rules transpire. The second foundation, organisation, pertains to simple organisation of life, because if a person is scatty and erratic, living without any structure, so run off their feet they are beside themselves, or intoxicated/hungover, or otherwise disheveled, they are very likely to be highly distracted and won't be able to 'chillax'. One of the moral precepts actually regards intoxication directly, so in this we see an example of how morality interrelates with organisation.
In short, one needs to 'clean up their act' and 'get their house in order' to prepare the foundation of practice.
That will do for an OP, and perhaps we might talk about these points generally and lead into a more in depth discussion on mindfulness from there.
P.S. In view of frequent and recent moderator intervention in this forum section, I suggest that a disposition of kindness would best reflect discourses we regard as 'Buddhist'.
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Its good sound advice and starting points gem. I know early in my own early development times, when foundations were scattered and unfocused, I was being constantly reminded to bring that back into focus. I also see how fear through my conditioned religious upbringing played a role in keeping me from all those other things you mentioned, such as lying, stealing, killing etc. So even as I had friends growing up stealing and lying, some where within me fear always kept me from going off the rails in this way, which was a probably a good protective mechanism until I could delve into truth deeper myself and let fear go.
Focus was my biggest and most difficult foundation to build. I was all over the shop with skewed views and so many realities in me forming ten thousand
strains and lines pulling me in all directions, crazy as it was, being so deeply entrenched, meant deeper weeding out and more solid foundation built. I guess that comes back to understanding all sides in self, to build that strong foundation of self, that then moves you more mindfully aware of yourself and all life.
I think back to how removed I am from my old foundations, that it is hard to even imagine how I was. But in hindsight, I see that for some reason, the deeper we are unstable in foundations, the more opportunity we have to go that deep to build them anew.