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Mindfulness goes further than you think

G'day

The reason mindfulness is simple is it takes things away and strips everything down until there is only present awareness of your experience as it is.

Mindfulness is the conscious existence of this moment. Although this moment might seem mundane and unremarkable, if you stop to be aware of it, the inexplicable presence of life exists.

Since most of us are rather distracted by mentalities, in a state of reactivity and past to future oriented, methods of meditation have been created that help bring attention back to the present where life lives. The mind can be strongly habitualised with tendencies to distraction, rumination and agitation, so it drifts away from the reality often and for extended periods of time. Bringing the mind to rest in the moment involves noticing when it has wandered off and returning to the present.

It is simple because you don't have to be aware since you are actually aware, and you don't have to be present because you already are. This is just realising the truth of the matter in the most immediate and direct sense, and dispelling the delusions.

sounds a good base for the continuum where we are present wherein the awareness may be both softened and heightened, feeling offered vibrations within the stillness more vividly, devoid of thought interference.

for example, we may simply feel sensations of energy moving within form phlegmatically or alternatively, once they arise, since we are neither resisting nor seeking, we look at the offered experience with receptivity rather than nonchalance, marking thereby our intent, without anticipation. else, simply looking without so subtly contributing magnetically, is somewhat passive.

secondly, the intuitive fulcrum from where we are cognising ... where is it? right now, the this-ness of mind body accepted, embraced, there is yet a recognition deep within, of underlying oneness, meaning that, the body is the object and not the subject, whereas consciousness (our aliveness) is both subject and object. the holding of this knowing, whilst being present and experiencing is different from a sensory experience as a receptor, believing itself in its limited form, to be the subject.

this may be illustrated when the energy called kundalini moves within. without going into the polarities and other aspects, the offered experience is new to mind. thus, our receptivity and acceptance, without anticipation, resting even prior experience memory imagery, orients us to experience each time like the first time, in wonderment.

shifting to the external, in mindfulness, say, in day to day human interaction, the same principle comes into play. acceptance of all as they are and of what is, as is, yet infusing on stage our unique creative footprint.

likewise, shifting to the dream state, once we nurture mindful awareness, we would be able to recollect dreams. within the dream, our responses also get ‘refined’, so to speak, as our fulcrum shifts towards vibrant emptiness.

this is how mindfulness applies in my moment to moment lived understanding.

Awareness of awareness, the ultimate and most deep and actually our natural state,
it starts with this and ends with this, every thought comes from there and returns there.

Mindfulness of the real-lived moment just as it is experienced by you. The truth, 'This is how it is'. How long does it last before mind drifts into the dream? Notice, 'mind wandered off', and return awareness of what reality is like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gem

The real-lived moment just as it is experienced by me has lasted for 40 years or so since I was a small child. My mind never wandered off except when I fell asleep. I expect this mindfulness - of being me (i.e. a particular person) - will continue till it ends when my body dies.

What is the point to mindfullness?

My experience is any technique can transcend the technique and that's the meditative state. Prior to that it's practice.

At some point subject and object merge or are no longer distinguishable. That's when time falls out as in a particularly fruitful sitting that seems to end just after it begins. It's like a flow state. In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras that merging of subject and object is the first level of Samadhi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ayar415

What is the point to mindfullness?

When we imagine it has a point, we mean it gets us what we might desire. We do the meditation as a means to the end, are still trying to get something, and hence retain a future orientation. Mindfulness concerns the truth, and it has nothing to do with what anyone wants/doesn't want. This makes the point of it different to what we usually think of as the point of something, because the point isn't to get something. The point is to cease trying to get something. In that way it is the cessation of the desire which incites volition, which is what some call 'surrender'. However, you can't surrender willfully, since surrender is the cessation of will. Surrender is willing, yet not wilful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Are they trying to get to a first state of samadhi and then try for the second state and so forth, or are they aware of 'this state' just as it is now?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gem

However, you can't surrender willfully, since surrender is the cessation of will. Surrender is willing, yet not wilful.

This is such an important point, and you articulated it nicely. I think this can be quite a hard thing for humans to grasp, because we tend to be very much geared towards striving and straining to achieve some result, and this striving and straining - which is how willfulness manifests itself - becomes so habitual that it's very easy to overlook it. So I think it's very important to be aware of this habit when we meditate, and to just allow it to fall away in its own time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gem

Are they trying to get to a first state of samadhi and then try for the second state and so forth, or are they aware of 'this state' just as it is now?

I don't know because aside from what I read I have no first-hand experience with the Yoga Sutras.

To be honest I don't even pay much mind to seeing things just as they are. I just practice technique as best as I can and sometimes find myself in that place where everything seems to drop out. It's an odd place where time, space and mind don't seem to exist in the way we normally experience them and I'm always surprised when the timer goes off because it seems like I just started though I "know" I was sitting in that space for some time.