Report 72

Mindfulness

 Mindfulness seems to be a method for seeing through the ignorance and delusion caused by the labels we put on people and things that creates a 'division between the observer and the observed, because what we experience is not the observed but the reactions of the observer.' Peter Strong - 'The Path of Mindfulness'

  The aim is to develop satisampajanna, 'a clear knowing' that allows fresh, direct experience in the present moment. We learn to overcome the limitations of our blind, habitual reactivity and try to develop what Suzuki called a 'Beginner's Mind.'

A very important part of this is cultivating an awareness of the feeling energy vedana that can power emotional reactions of craving and attachment. This is usually achieved by vipassana meditation.

MIndfulness does not proceed through analysis or understanding, but is more of an experiential process that unfolds at a deeper intuitive level. Just what this is or could be I am not sure. I am also suspicious of anything that encourages me to throw away my logical, rational thought processes. But putting them in their correct place seems in order, and admitting that there are other ways of knowing.

Something that I really like about mindfulness is that it offers me a way to not have to believe thoughts like 'I am depressed,' 'I am this,' 'I am that,' but, although I can't entirely escape from painful things happening in life, I don't have to suffer from them so much. Not fighting habit, but becoming 'simply aware of the whole structure of habit without resistance' as Krishnamurti puts it. Having the freedom to choose how to respond in life rather than being compelled to react according to a habitual pattern.