Classroom Talk
Spring - Summer 2002 Archive
The nitty-gritty of mindfulness practice. Posted by John on June 06, 2002 at 16:55:51:
One can wake up in mindfulness to anything—what one sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels . . . . . one can wake up on it, and be reminded of being
present, and remain inwardly awake for awhile. And one can wake up in the midst of one's thinking going on.
What tends to keep mindfulness out of our consciousness is having our thinking minds taken over automatically by the habitual, conditioned thinking-
thinking-thinking of the eight personality types that keeps bubbling up. When your mind is filled up with your typical personality thoughts about
whatever's bothering you, that keeps the mindfulness out.
Except for that, we would all go around being mindful all the time naturally. Yet, Great Nature didn't set us up that way.
But if you catch on that this is happening, you can wake right up and be mindful. You can be saying, "Oh, this is going on, and I'm in here now."
How do I know when I am being mindful? I know it when I feel the sensations of my livingness going on in here now in my body. I know I am
mindful when I *feel* I am being in here, alive, present *within* my body, and seeing around.
You could say this awareness of the feeling of being alive within is the mantra of mindfulness. One can learn, by practice, to *keep awareness of this
inward feeling of being alive going*, while, at the same time, relating with anything that comes up in the world around.
That is "the posture" of being mindful. Once you are in this posture of mindfulness, you *can* decide to hang out in it for awhile. That is what
practice is—deciding to do that, on purpose, to get better at it. Staying alert in it for awhile. Then again, later, staying in it for awhile. Practice doing
this during the days.
Wake up in this inward-outward posture and attempt to keep awake in this way while doing the dishes. And you don't have to make a chore of it.
Wake up in this posture of aware presence and attempt to keep awake in this way while eating your pudding, or swimming a lap, or making love, or
whatever. Carrying out the garbage, taking a shower, preparing a meal, waiting in a waiting room, riding the bus, or driving, shopping, playing golf
or tennis, working at your craft. Anything that you usually do in life can be an opportunity for practicing mindfulness in this awakened posture. Do
this off-and-on during the days. At first, find ways to remind you to do it, like pasted-up notes. Soon you won't need that.
Wake up in this posture of "I am in here behind these eyes on the front of my face out there, within this membrane of skin around my body . . . I am in
here within my body, and I can feel being alive inside here, while I am looking outward at things around. If you will practice "becoming centered" this
way several times a day, maybe hourly if you can remember, the remembrance of mindfulness (even when you are thinking-thinking-thinking) will
slowly proliferate in you. And when it comes to you, spontaneously, to remember that you can wake up, wake up! Make a practice of that. Adopt a
"convention" that when you remember you can wake up spontaneously, you will go ahead, every time, and pause and get centered, and be awake
within in that posture of mindfulness.
Between picking out activities of your own choosing, whatever they are, that are going on routinely in your life, and making everyday mindfulness
exercises out of them, and having a convention to wake up whenever you spontaneously remember to, these may hasten the proliferation of
mindfulness in your life.
Questions about this topic are the most important of all in this school.
Coach
I'm feeling better again. That forest fire is nearly out. I notice how quiet it is in class these days. I've wondered if I have finally gone and done it, and
managed to offend every one of you in our class at the same time in some profoundly insensitive way that I don't even know about. I'll do some
reflecting about that. (Might be true, might be Doormat thinking.) Maybe I owe some amends. Maybe it's just that—except for Down Under—it's
Summer coming in.
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Archived 08/26/2002