I think most of you understand the concept of having a full mind. You have been conditioned; you have been taught to live with a full mind by parents, peers, society, and yourself. You have been trained to live in a state of “I have to get, I have to have, I have to get this accomplished, I have to think about this, I have to worry about that, etc.”
The mind throws out a thought, any thought, and before you know it, you are being pulled over there, and/or dragged over here. The mind is the puppet master, and boy has it pulled your strings. The mind has you dancing whether you want to or not.
Being mindful doesn’t seem to come as easily or as naturally. Many of you understand the word or the idea, the concept. Some of you have even experienced this state of being from time to time. In most situations, it happened by accident. How many of you have been so at ease, so engrossed in whatever activity you were doing that the mind was peaceful? In those moments there was no “I have to do something else other than what I am doing now.” In those situations there was nothing adversarial going on; there was no power and control game with anything.
It is a phenomenon that just seems to happen. You may even consider it to be a grace, a manifestation of favor especially from a superior (God). It could even appear to be an act of mercy, a clemency, a pardon of sorts. In most situations, it appears to happen by accident, but actually, it is a byproduct of something that you are not doing. You will understand what I mean the further we get into this.
Being mindful is a grace; however, it is not a grace given to you by the superior force of nature. This state of being occurs not by accident, but through self awareness; it is a grace that you give to yourself.
Being mindful is a state of being that many people have achieved. The great mystics have talked about it, but that does not make it mystical. It comes from living mindfully, it comes from practicing awareness. It is something that anyone can achieve, but you will have to stop doing some of the things that you do habitually, and you may even have to begin to do other things in their place.
For me, being mindful began when I began to observe. I observed life, and life’s situations. I observed the thoughts that the mind had about the situation at hand. As I observe the mind and its thoughts, I observed the randomness, and the chaotic nature of the thoughts. I observed how the thoughts that pass through the mind created the feelings that were felt inside the body. I observed that as the thoughts changed, so did the feelings. The more I remembered to observe, the more observant I became. I observed so much that it eventually became second nature. Through this act of observing I also learned how to be more selective with which thought forms I wanted to participate. Yes, the mind continued to throw out ideas, concepts, worries, etc that it wanted me to engage in, but in my observing, I observed that I did not have to engage if I chose not to.
I observed that there were certain patterns that the conditioned, thinking mind did because it had been trained to do so, and those patterns did not support me to be in the moment. I observed patterns of comparing this moment or person with another moment or person. I observed the mind wanting to label a person, or the situation; it wanted to put it into a box, rather than just taking it for its face value. I observed the mind wanted to judge something as either good or bad. I observed a lack of acceptance. I could go on and on with what I observed. Yes, I could see that the neurological firings of the mind wanted me to go here, there or everywhere; however, I observed that I did not have to go there unless I wanted to. I observed that even though those firings were prompting me to do this or that, I could choose another way of being. I also observed that this other way of being was more in line with my natural state of being compared to my conditioned way of being; I just had to break those old patterns.
As those old patterns began to break, I also observed a new phenomenon. I observed a liberation, a freedom to enjoy life that was different from following along with the chaotic nature of the thinking, conditioned mind. I could finally see the puppet master pulling the strings, I could see the power and control game, and I could see that there was another source of power that was much more in line with my true nature. This other source of power was Existence itself. You may call it God, but it was not the God of the blind billions, it was a God of acceptance, love, understanding, compassion, and empathy. It was the God of One. It was the God that shared its connectedness, and did so without any needs, requirements, or conditions. It was the God that could be heard in silence; it was the God that was clear to understand when I moved away from the chattering of the mind. It was the God of love; the God that emanated “Life supports life!”
To me, being mindful meant being aware of our human nature, and all that encompassed. It meant being aware of the human, conditioned, thinking mind, and being aware of its nature. The dictionary defines mindful as being conscious or aware of something, and I became aware of a life force that was omnipotent, but not controlling or dictating like the conditioned, thinking mind, or the God of the blind billions. I urge you to try it out for yourself. There is another way to live, a simpler way to live, a cleaner way to live. When you begin to live in this manner, you will then see that the mind can then be your servant rather than you being its puppet.
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