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.

THE SECRET TO LIVING MINDFULLY

OK, so there is no ‘secret’ as such, but it is true that very few people know how to live mindfully. Here’s a story from Buddhism. The story may well be apocryphal, but the advice certainly sounds like it came from the historical Buddha.

It is written that a philosopher once said to the Buddha, ‘I have heard tell of Buddhism as a doctrine of enlightenment. What is its method? In other words, what do you do every day?’

Before I tell you what the Buddha said, I want to make two comments. First, Buddhism does indeed teach enlightenment, which means---wait for it---waking up. Buddhism teaches us how to ‘wake up’ and stay awake. (No, I am not talking about insomnia.) Secondly, Buddhism does not teach a ‘method’ or ‘technique’, for methods and techniques are forms of mental conditioning. Buddhism is all about deconditioning the mind. It’s about letting go of anything and everything that holds us back from happiness and wellness.

Now, what was the Buddha’s answer to the philosopher’s question, ‘What do Buddhists do every day?’

‘We walk, we eat, we wash ourselves, we sit down …,’ said the Buddha.

‘But what is there that’s special in that?’ replied the philosopher. ‘Everyone walks, eats, washes himself, sits down . . .’

‘Sir, with us there is a difference. When we walk, we are aware of the fact that we are walking. When we eat, we are aware of the fact that we are eating, and so on. When others walk, eat, wash themselves, or sit down, they are not aware of what they are doing.’

There you have it---AWARENESS. The secret or key to living mindfully is ... to live with AWARENESS. Yes, it's that simple ... but it isn't all that easy. It takes lots of practice ... every day ... and each and every minute and moment of the day.

I just thought of another little story from Buddhism that's on the same point. It’s a gem. The South Korean Zen master Seung Sahn (pictured right) would say, ‘When you eat, just eat. When you read the newspaper, just read the newspaper. Don't do anything other than what you are doing.’

One day a student saw Seung Sahn reading the newspaper while he was eating. The student asked if this did not contradict his teaching. Seung Sahn said, ‘When you eat and read the newspaper, just eat and read the newspaper.’

The point of both of these stories is this. Whatever you do, whatever you are doing, do it with focused and undivided attention---that is, awareness. That, my friends, is the ‘secret’ to living mindfully.

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