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Who wants to sit in meditation watching their thoughts?
I can do that driving my car if I wanted to.
Wouldn't gently stilling them be 'the thing'?
(Like shewing away a fly. Then, ah, the peace.)
Who wants to sit in meditation watching their thoughts?
I can do that driving my car if I wanted to.
Wouldn't gently stilling them be 'the thing'?
(Like shewing away a fly. Then, ah, the peace.)
Thanks.
I think you're taking too narrow a view of mindfulness.
Oh, I should have asked what the heck is Mindfulness? Sorry.
What is the Buddhist perspective?
Thanks
I'll tell you my perspective, but I don't speak for all Buddhists.
To me, mindfulness is different than meditation, although they are related.
But -- since we met -- you know I'm ancient. And what I am finding at the ripe old age of 70 (!) is that I need to be more mindful. All these years we've been encouraged to multi-task...I've come to the conclusion that multitasking -- while sometimes necessary -- is not good. I walk into the kitchen and forget why I went in there. The reason, on the way I was thinking of three other things. When I become mindful of the present, right away I remember why I went into the kitchen. That's mindfulness (to me) -- giving your full attention to one thing, not letting your mind wander, remaining focused.
On the other hand, the Buddhist monks I know tell me their meditation is designed to make the mind become -- essentially -- a blank slate.
goal is to separate True Self from the mind that bonded it. Mind, body-mind, has to be servant, not master.
One of the techniques to do so is to learn how to watch thoughts. Like shadows on the screen, like clouds floating across the sky. They come and go - sky stays unperturbed.
That unperturbed sky is True Self. It is the observer.
You can't remove thoughts completely. As they, mostly, come from outside and mingle with your mental atmosphere. Some of them are yours, from previous lives, waiting to be resolved. Some are from others. Waiting to be accepted - or rejected.
It is attachment to thoughts that is hindering development.
To me, mindfulness is different than meditation, although they are related.
.....
When I become mindful of the present, right away I remember why I went into the kitchen.
That's mindfulness (to me) --
giving your full attention to one thing, not letting your mind wander, remaining focused.
On the other hand, the Buddhist monks I know tell me their meditation is designed to
make the mind become -- essentially -- a blank slate.
So I could say mindfulness to you someone else might say...'being in the moment, being in the now, being aware of the present'.
Sounds like.
There is another forum with Meditation as a Heading with 100s of threads...I don't even read anything that starts out
with Mindfulness since it seems they want to let thoughts just come right on in. (Not my thing.)
I like you brought up the blank slate.
Blank slate is easy for me after decades....ask anyone here...'Miss H is a blank slate, alright!'
My understanding of this is that the human brain tends to chatter constantly, and mindfulness notices the chatter but focuses on the immediate moment, often by awareness of the breath. This works for me, when I remember to do it, in moments of stress or anxiety--say, before surgery or to manage depression, loneliness and negative, despairing thoughts.
Meditation and mindfulness: meditation usually refers to a physical practice, as in sitting meditation, though the definition is often broadened to include walking meditation and the like. Mindfulness can be done any time, anywhere, like washing dishes.
Mindfulness is minding the mind.
Just like Sadhguru or Radjnish said - YOU are conscious of mind thinking. That's it. It is very hard to accomplish though as mind does 99.8% of what YOU consider thinking. Hence, it is rather challenging to separate YOU from not YOU and from mind and its process.
Techniques for that are abundant but they all aim at one goal - YOU become aware of Self as true YOU and of mind, as separate mental "apparatus" that is there for YOU, when needed.
There is very simple exercise to see how it works.
It works best when in calm and quiet, dark environment, with the least amount of distractive stimuli.
Then, simply sit comfortably, whatever that pose might be. Lay down if so it feels. Does not really matter, comfort and peace is baseline.
Take few breathes, just to calm down and, start watching your thoughts.
Do not take any judgement on them. Do not use a thought as trampoline for more thinking on that subject.
Thought comes - you watch it by concentrating on it. You simply turn light of your attention onto it.
In my case, thought immediately disappears. I simply shine concentration at it - and it's no more. New thought comes - same happens.
then, there will be a moment when there is absolute absence of any thoughts. When I am - thoughts are not. then, new thought comes and goes....
As Sadhguru said - YOU are here and your mind is over there.... That's my goal.
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Sorry.
