Mindfulness Or Mind-Full-ness?

Every time I turn around I hear the new buzzword 'Mindfulness', but what is it really? We will be looking at mindfulness in this short series being guided by how the ancient yoga masters and the Vedas describe mindfulness. Many say that mindfulness promotes self-awareness, but if I mistakenly think that the temporary body I am occupying is the 'self' how can this lead to true self-awareness? Please note: this track was recorded live and may contain background noise.

Transcript

The things that I will share with you first I just want to let you know it's not my opinion.

I didn't make it up or decide this is my truth as the saying goes these days that we are attempting even though in a very faulty manner to pass on very ancient and wonderful spiritual truths.

So it's become like the big buzzword mindfulness and I don't really think many people even those promoting it really understand it in a context of the yoga traditions where it of course all came from.

One of the things that people describe in terms of the benefits is that it promotes self-awareness and of course that's like okay well who or what is the self.

That's like the really big question because if you say that it's promoting self-awareness but what you're promoting is an awareness of something that is not the self then that's sort of like hitting not in the best direction.

The materialistic paradigm is that there is a body and with it a mind and with that paradigm people attempt to address difficulties in life,

Conflicts,

Problems that they encounter and within that paradigm they look for solutions.

The whole yoga system is premised upon an understanding that the body that you currently have on is not you.

That's not you.

This is not who you are.

This is not your identity.

This is a temporary phase that you're going through.

This body will go through a natural process of maturing and aging and it will experience death and you will move on.

This is not who you are and being focused on trying to make a home in this body is considered a fool's task because no matter how hard you try and what you do you cannot preserve youthfulness.

You cannot preserve your body indefinitely and so the yoga paradigm was to understand it in everything in that context.

This was the foundation of approaching everything.

All of the problems that we encounter in life,

All of the things that we have to deal with,

We dealt with in that paradigm.

Not being the material body brings with it also now a secondary level of something we should appreciate is the mind is also not who I am.

My mind may be full of thoughts,

It may be full of desires,

It may be full of wants,

It may be a drawn and attracted to all kinds of things but that is not me and that if we really embrace that,

That's startling.

That's like this is like a whole different approach to the idea of finding happiness,

Finding peace,

Finding fulfillment.

It's a whole major shift like 180 degrees.

It's going in the opposite direction to the materialistic notion that I am material,

That I am this body and I am the mind and whatever's occurring in there,

That's me and that brings one to a state of perpetually being unfulfilled fundamentally at the end of the day unhappy even though you may have flashes of experience that may be very stimulating and we describe as happiness,

It passes and when it's passed what are you left with?

These are the big questions.

So rather than dealing with things in what I will describe,

Not to criticize or anything but yeah I mean I'm probably already saying some things that are going to offend people and bear with me,

My intention is not to offend anybody but I am compelled to at least challenge certain ideas or notions that we may be hanging on to and I will challenge them because my hope and desire is that you will all come to the platform of actual happiness,

That you will find the highest degree of fulfillment and happiness but in order to do that we can't go on doing the things that everybody else is doing because it's not leading there.

We live in a time that's extraordinary,

It's absolutely the degree to which humanity has lost the plot under the influence of consumer economics is astonishing,

Absolutely astonishing or you don't agree.

I mean now that they've finally figured out okay social media makes you actually very unhappy.

Spending a lot of time on these thingies actually is counterproductive to happiness,

It's counterproductive to finding purpose in life,

It's counterproductive to a lot of things and now they're talking about okay we actually need to consider limiting children's access to them because it's actually so damaging.

It instead of you know we do it,

We develop this compulsive and almost addictive behavior because these things are designed to give you little dopamine flashes.

That's what the like thing is all about.

This is how they designed all these apps.

They designed them specifically to be addictive,

To get your attention and keep you on that because they are going to now exploit you for money.

So when we move now into the realm of you know people promoting the idea of mindfulness,

I will tell you and because we don't speak for very long and it's a serious subject,

The purpose of mindfulness as it has traditionally been practiced and taught was to bring you to a level of actual appreciation that hey I'm not my mind,

I don't have to follow it everywhere,

I don't have to become enslaved by it,

That there is other options,

There are other things I can be doing,

There are other things I can be focusing upon.

So mindfulness while they taught to become increasingly aware of what's going on in your mind,

It was not for the purpose of being completely just diving into immersing yourself in the mind.

One of the things we do with we from time to time offer a little one-day immersions,

We call it living in the now and it ties in these very ancient practices to help people actually deal with life,

To have a more profound and fulfilling experience and a big part of it is we teach a meditation technique that's called the silent witness.

The silent witness meditation is about becoming aware of the things that are flowing through your mind and the description and what we take people through in a step-by-step way,

It's kind of like sitting on a stream,

In the bank of a stream or a river.

If you're sitting on the bank of a stream or a river and you're watching all of the the water flowing by,

Sometimes it's flowing rapidly,

Other points of the year may be quite placid,

Sometimes it's filled with all kinds of debris and stuff bouncing up and down,

Other times it looks very clear.

This analogy is what goes on with the mind,

Sometimes the mind is heavily polluted and contaminated,

Sometimes it's really raging,

Other times it's more still and I have a choice,

I can either dive into the river and go with the flow and that never ends very well or I can begin to recognize that I can actually sit apart from it,

I can be very much aware of everything that's going on as thoughts,

As experiences flow by but what that does by silently witnessing it,

I begin to experience the reality that this is not me,

That I am the silent witness sitting on the bank of the river observing it and if I become deeply involved,

I jump in and just get swept away and go for it,

Who knows where that is going to go.

We have this epidemic of unhappiness and depression,

Trillions of dollars are being spent on mind-altering substances,

People are factually more unhappy at this point than at any point in history,

Even though life is not as difficult,

Nobody has to go out and plow a field with an oxen or pull a plow themselves,

Nobody has to be dependent upon what they harvest because the winter is coming and if we don't harvest enough maybe our children will die,

There are no wild animals roaming the streets of Auckland ready to pounce on you and kill you when you go out you know to look for some money to engage,

This is how people have lived for thousands of years,

We have it so easy,

Everything is served to us on a platter,

All you got to do is pick up the phone,

Uber eats,

It'll all be delivered,

It's just like crazy town,

You don't even have to cook anymore,

What to speak of grow your food and yet everybody is so unhappy.

There are people that promote the idea that mindfulness,

I mean think that word to be mindful means fundamentally what?

To be mindful means kind of like to be aware,

To be thoughtful,

To be discerning,

We're not encouraged to discern,

We're encouraged to just do it,

To just throw yourself at every urge,

Everything that comes past,

Everything that you know emerges in the mind just to go with it,

That's not mindful,

To sit down and meditate upon what you're eating and experience the flavors and the taste and the texture,

That's not being mindful,

That's mindful,

You're allowing your mind to become filled up with all kinds of sensual experience and you are holding the idea that by being what the people describe as being in the moment and it's not,

Of just really diving into these experiences and being there with it and you know,

No,

That this does not bring self-awareness,

All this does is encourage and reinforce the idea that the body and mind is who I am and that by immersing myself and worldly experience I will come to the platform of happiness,

I will experience love,

I will find shelter and everything that I'm looking for.

The traditional approach to mindfulness was this idea of stepping back,

Stepping back from your mind,

We run,

I mentioned a number of times,

We run programs at the maximum security prison at Paramo Remo every week and we teach mindfulness and meditation and one of the big things that we deal with,

With a criminal mindset,

You know the criminal mindset comes from this notion that number one material things will make me happy and I have a right to all this stuff and anybody that gets in between me and the goodies,

They become what's called a victim,

I don't see them as a victim,

I just see them someone getting in the way of me and what I want.

Teaching people how to hit the pause button,

How to step back and not be embroiled,

Not be swept away with all of these emotions and things that may arise within our mind is so important but it becomes,

It only becomes possible if we understand that I am an eternal spiritual being,

This body and this mind that I'm using is not me,

I actually have a power to decide what the contents of my mind is going to be,

I have the power to decide what actions I am going to perform in my life and when I make excellent choices of where I'm going in life and what I'm doing,

It has an excellent outcome.

When I make poor choices,

When I am moved just by desire and by mental,

You know,

Compulsion,

When I go that route,

It never ends well,

You get a flash and it goes down and you are just now agitated and lonely and empty looking for something else,

The process of mindfulness is to become increasingly aware of the fact that I actually do have these choices,

I can step back in my life,

I can take charge rather than being enslaved by my mind and that is the significant importance of the practice of mindfulness.

A secondary benefit is that my mind may be full of all kinds of crap,

It may be driving me nuts,

Fears,

Anxieties,

Apprehensions,

Desires,

Remembrances of things that I've experienced or have happened to me,

There can be all kinds of things that are sources of actual unhappiness for me.

When I have come to experience the reality that this mind is not who I am,

It's doing its thing,

That I can be the silent witness,

I can allow things to just go by and not feel I have to dive in the river,

That automatically brings a tremendous relief,

It's not an answer in and of itself but it brings about a tremendous relief that okay my mind is problematic but that's okay,

That's okay,

We'll deal with it.

So this is the real significance,

It's not about filling the mind up with material experience,

Deeply diving in and bathing in that,

No,

Real mindfulness is about reclaiming,

Reclaiming my true position as a spiritual being,

That this is my true identity,

This is really who I am.

The word mantra is interesting,

It's made up of two parts,

Mana literally means the mind and tra means to draw away or to be liberated or freed from the mind.

The use of mantra is not to become absorbed in the world but it is to become absorbed in my eternal spiritual transcendental nature,

To experience how liberating and how wonderful that is,

To reconnect with the Supreme Soul,

To experience even while within this body my true spiritual identity,

This is the foundation for all happiness.

Okay and I think that's about as far as I'll go unless somebody has a question,

Was that okay or was it too challenging or no?

Okay we don't do much fluff over here,

Sorry.

Reviews

Some very good points made! Thank you!

Excellent explanation. So relevant. 🌿

Thank you a great insight!!