MINDFULNESS IS NOT CONCENTRATION

The great Indian spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti [pictured right] spoke a lot about mindfulness without hardly ever mentioning the word. Listen to these words from his wonderful book Freedom From the Known:

‘Attention is not the same thing as concentration. Concentration is exclusion; attention, which is total awareness, excludes nothing. It seems to me that most of us are not aware, not only of what we are talking about but of our environment, the colours around us, the people, the shape of the trees, the clouds, the movement of water.’ 

Concentration is fixed and focused in a particular moment. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is a moment-to-moment activity … from one moment to the next and then the next and then the next and so on. 

Of course, we all need to concentrate from time to time on what we are doing. For example, we may be trying to balance a set of accounts or solve a legal or similar problem. We certainly need to concentrate when we’re engaged in any such activity. However, we do not need to concentrate as such each and every second of each and every minute of each and every hour of each and every day. What we need to do is to be attentive and aware of what’s happening in and around us.

A concentrated mind is anything but an attentive and aware mind. The concentrated mind excludes everything other than that the subject of your concentration. Awareness, on the other hand, is never exclusive. It is inclusive, universal and all-encompassing. Mindfulness — that is, bare (that is, diffused and unconcentrated) attention and choiceless (that is, non-judgmental and non-interpretative) awareness — is the direct, immediate and unmediated perception of ‘what is’ … as it actually happens from one moment to the next!

When we concentrate on something, we are totally blind, that is, inattentive, to all other things. Those other things quickly become the past without our ever having experienced them. Don’t let reality — that is, what happens from one moment to the next — die on you. Don’t experience it as a past event. Otherwise, you will instantly lose the immediacy, directness and actuality of the experience.

The Buddha advised us to observe and watch closely ... that is, mindfully ... whatever is occurring in time and space in the here-and-now, in the moment, from one moment to the next. Not only watch, but the Buddha went on to say, ‘and firmly and steadily pierce it.’

So, my friends, pierce the reality of each here-and-now moment-to-moment experience. Be attentive and aware. Only then can you say you are alive and no longer living in the past. Only then can you truly say you are living mindfully.

MINDFULNESS: YOU CAN’T SAY 'IT’S JUST NOT CRICKET'

In the annals of Australian cricket master cricketer Justin Langer AM (pictured left, and also below) is one of Australia's great top-order batsmen.

Justin's own website reliably states, ‘Originally playing at number 3 he moved to opener in 2001 and played 105 test matches scoring 7,696 runs including 23 test centuries.’ Not bad, to say the least. In fact, as we Aussies like to say, ‘Bloody beautiful, mate!’

According to this recent article in The Times of India Justin engages in daily meditation. (I also know he's into yoga.) He has his own little ‘ashram’ (his word) at the bottom of the garden of his home in Perth, Western Australia. From the content of the article, and its wording, I get the impression that Justin, who was known in the cricket world for his mental toughness, practises some type of mindfulness meditation, for it has taught him to ‘live for the moment’ and ‘focus on the present.’

I have an important confession to make. I am not a fan of cricket. Sorry, but I would rather watch paint dry than watch cricket. Actually, if I am forced to watch cricket, I try to watch it mindfully. Not being all that familiar with the rules, I simply watch ... and observe ... each 'shot' (hit, catch, bowl, etc). I observe the bat, its colour and position, and its spatio-temporal movement. Ditto each bowl, etc. All this is done without judgment, condemnation or analysis ... for I can rarely tell a good 'shot' from a bad one. Of course, if you happen to be someone watching the game who is 'serious' about the matter, or if you're an umpire or a commentator, coach or selector, you will of necessity engage in (hopefully informed) judgment and analysis. You must.

What if you're a player on the field? Well, I guess a certain amount of self-evaluation and self-analysis must take place, but never to the point that you take your eye off the ball, or (if you're a batsman) you look at where you're going to hit the ball as opposed to keeping your eye on the ball whilst making sure the bat is 'coming through' facing the ball. I'm probably not making myself all that clear to those who really know what they're talking about (ha!), but mindfulness ... in the sense of attention and awareness from one moment to the next ... is very important for any player regardless of their position on the field or in the team. This is so, even if you've never heard of the concept of mindfulness.

Although, as I say, I know little about the game of cricket itself, I do know this much – the successful pursuit of any sport like cricket, baseball or golf requires, among other things, confidence and, most importantly, concentration.

We need to be careful when using the word ‘concentration’ in the context of mindfulness meditation. Concentration in the form of a fixed and rigid, even ‘absorbed’, focus on some word, sound or object may be the ‘name of the game’ in some forms of meditation, but not so when it comes to mindfulness meditation. Here, the word ‘concentration’ is used in the sense of one’s being able to be attentive to what is happening in each changing moment ... and things can and generally do change very fast in sports of the kind in question.

This also needs to be kept in mind. Concentration means, not so much blocking out distraction – for that is not always possible or even necessarily desirable – but being attentive to and choicelessly aware of whatever is the ‘content’ of the moment having regard to the ‘need’ of the particular moment in terms of the overall goal. That way, one can play in the moment for each hit or shot.

One final thing ... effort defeats itself. Yes, one must be mentally tough, persistent, determined, and so forth ... but trying too hard to, for example, hit the ball is not the way to go.

Finally, here's some video footage of the man 'in action':

Good on ya, Justin!

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