The Mindful Heart
Nancy M. Davison
Mindfulness as a concept originated in the depths of ancient Buddhism, and is defined as the conscious performance of all activities. The "walking meditation" is an example of such conscious awareness. Mindfulness leads to detachment from the outer life through the clear knowledge that one is not one's thoughts, actions, reactions, desires or satisfactions. Paradoxically, it also leads to deep identification with the One Life which expresses Itself in the material form.
True mindfulness demands intention – focused, poised and expectant mental awareness. This is in direct contrast to personality immersion in the emotional nature. The individual focused in the higher Mind does not indulge in emotional, solar plexus reactions, but responds from the heart, and is sensitive to her/his environment from the point of view of Soul. The Christ asked us to exist "in the world but not of it", meaning that we must learn to identify ourselves as Soul, even while we use the personality as a tool to serve humanity. When we do this, we live on the subjective plane while we work out our deepest awareness in the objective world.
Soul and Heart are synonymous, as each mediates between the lower and the higher, the material and the spiritual. Heart/soul qualities include Group Love, Humility, Service, Patience, Life, Tolerance, Identification, Compassion, Sympathy, Wisdom, and Sacrifice, all of which are gained through mindfulness. Years ago I began dedicating an occasional month to meditation on one or other of these qualities. I began with Patience, since I seemed to have so little of it you know the line, "Lord give me patience and give it to me now." As the month progressed and I paid close attention to my daily interactions I discovered that to be patient I had also to be tolerant, humble, compassionate, sympathetic, and sacrificial. I also found that I had to identify to some extent with the stresses and urgencies of the person or situation I was trying to be patient with. Years later, having meditated on several of these heart/soul qualities, I've found that while they may not be exactly the same in expression, they're definitely interactive and corollary. We cannot unfold one of them without drawing on the others. For instance, one cannot be compassionate without identification, one cannot serve without wisdom, and it's impossible to know what sacrifice really means without an experience of group love.
To live in the center of the Mindful Heart, one must "stand steady in the Light of the soul." When we, through lifetimes of mindful observation, identify our-Selves with/as all that exists, we will recognize that past, present and future are one and the same.
Mindfulness involves forgetfulness of yesterday's pains and sorrows, achievements and accolades, so that we're fully involved in this moment, here and now, and in the qualities of the heart which can only be expressed in this moment. The Heart is a now organ, spiritually as well as physically. We are the culmination of our past and create the future in this precise moment, so if we cling to the past we cannot be living in the present. In an early Deep Space Nine (StarTrek) episode, Benjamin Sisko finds himself transported to the past, to the moment when his wife was killed in a space battle. He comes to realize that he "exists" in that moment, that he's "stuck" there, and so cannot have a present, a now, and that he must leave the past to the past to be able to live fully and meaningfully. As the Christ taught, "let the dead bury the dead."
Finally, true mindfulness allows us to destroy the veils which keep us from seeing Reality. When we use the mantram below we demand:
May the energy of the divineself inspire me
and the light of the soul direct.
May I be led from darkness to Light,
from the unreal to the Real,
from death to Immortality.
What we claim through the use of this mantram, is our right as Soul to over- come, to live beyond personality, which is a product of the past. One of the steps on the Way to such revelation is right mindfulness.
Total Attention
Charlotte Schmid
What is mindfulness? Can you touch it, have you seen it? Can you name it, define it, when it is void of all naming and any defining words? When it is the focused living of its very nature, nothing outside and apart from it, all attention, one- pointedness....Can you sense it?
I turn a page in my notebook and notice the sound this creates, the slight movement, the little stirring of air. The sound of the moving paper, nothing more, nothing less. I then notice the feel of the paper and my mind becomes absorbed in another thought that very moment. No thought of a pen yet that will write on the paper following this very moment. Mind is becoming 'empty' – empty of what we think of as thoughts, yet it fills itself with all senses known.
Mind opens and at the same time it is gathered in total attention and awareness. It feels the contents of an empty bowl, it senses the story that is waiting between the finished page and a new blank page, the space between, before anything is reached. Mind hears the music that can never find its notes on paper, it smells the lust of hyacinths and skunks, it seems to be the translucent poppy that shields its soul. It penetrates into all the worlds that are compressed into the space of a single moment. This Mind tastes the sweetness of fresh air. Time, as we know it, flows by as if it were of no concern, as if it had stopped to be, had become timeless and floating endlessly from here to there. Even breath is no longer noticed, it has become the same as everything else.
Empty Mind.
Mind full of Being.
Mindfulness
Lisa M. Payne
It was the snide remark. The casual aside, slightly racial in nature. The prejudice of a handicapped remark. Said in jest perhaps, but devastating nonetheless. All were examples of mindlessness not mindfulness.
In this global day and age, what one says has global implications. Interconnectedness, sensitivity and understanding are a must. Mindfulness is the byword of today. Mindfulness in thought, word and deed. Mindfulness in all one does.
Mindlessness has brought us to where we are today. It has impacted our society and infiltrated every aspect of life. The devastation is all around. Carelessness has brought the planet to the brink of disaster. Human, as well as animal life, to near extinction.
One must be spiritually centered to be mindful in the moment. Mindfulness in every moment is hard to attain. Being aware of all that is and our surroundings can be very draining. It is only after some time that one no longer struggles and it comes naturally. Living in a total state of mindfulness thus commences.
The demeaning joke is no longer funny. The off remarks become shameful. All creatures and humans are our concern. Nothing remains outside the circle of our thoughts. Mindlessness falls by the wayside Mindfulness thus prevails.
The centuries old debate continues between science and religious philosophy:
Is mind the result of brain activity or is the brain an instrument of the mind?
The High Road
Ford Boyer
I'm sitting in front of the computer pondering on what I am going to write about mindfulness when it dawns on me that another part of my mind is thinking about visiting a beautiful protea farm on Maui. Oh, well my split personality at work again! How often are we seemingly focused on one task when we suddenly realize that we are thinking about something totally different? We might be preparing a meal, cleaning a floor, surfing the net or any other activity while, at the same time, the mind is busy doing its thing by wandering off to a foreign country or maybe even other planets or solar systems. While this is a mental capability, it is not mindfulness. Mindfulness is being conscious of each thought as it registers in the brain and then taking action on that thought. Sounds impossible, right?
However, it can be done and the Ageless Wisdom tells us that there are three parts to the mind lower, middle and higher with the middle acting as a mediator between the low and the high. Simply put, the lower mind acts as the everyday thinker; that part of the mind that gets us through our day. The higher mind can be seen as the formulator of ideas that later filter down through the middle mind into the lower mind into brain consciousness. A sort of chain reaction or trickle down effect.
It can be considered a true art to know when and how to use each part of the mind. Most works of art involve study, training and practice and so it is with the art of mindfulness. There are a number of methods available for improving the mind but the most proven method is the long term practice of meditation.
Meditation, or the withdrawing of the mind within, leads to the state that allows us to not chase after the externals of the mind; i.e., shopping, work, the busy-ness of the mind. Meditation is not dullness of mind or going into a trance. It is a calm alertness that leads to an underlying stillness, a clarity of mind allowing for truth of the higher mind to register in the brain consciousness.
There are many methods of meditating and it is up to each individual to find the practice that is effective. However, there are two basic paths – the heart/emotion path and the heart/mind path. The heart/emotion path has been followed for over two thousand years and now that the Aquarian Age is with us, it is time to move toward the heart/mind method.
The heart/mind process leads to the ability to perceive life on Earth in a more truthful, realistic manner. Our perceptions are our reality and perceptions change, often from day to day or hour by hour. A quiet lower mind functions so that we perceive according to the higher mind or the world of truthful ideas. Then the lower mind can be used to implement those ideas trickling through to it. We are less prone to emotional outbursts or reactions and are able to live a calm and joyful life.
We live in a world of constant communication and information from around the world. Stilling the mind in order to arrive at truth is becoming more important another computer is added to the internet, another radio station or tv channel is added to the airwaves and another thousand or so cell phones are added hourly to the busy "talk" life of humanity.
Whatever method you choose, choose one today and begin to learn to still the busy mind of humanity tread the higher road.