MINDFULNESS AND ISLAM

Now, lest there be any confusion about the matter, let me say this right at the outset: I am not a Muslim, and Islam is certainly not my favourite religion. No, not by a long shot---but that’s for another day. Actually, I have no favourite religion at all. Having said that, I can find some good---and, yes, plenty of bad---things to say about every religion. Today, I will say some positive things about Islam. It’s high time that somebody did.

I’m ‘into’ mindfulness---which is all about health and wellness---and the essence of mindfulness (which, by the way, is not a religion) is this---unconditional surrender to what is. Such surrender is the result of a choiceless awareness to life as it unfolds from one moment to the next. In essence, the word ‘Islam’ means voluntary and total submission---in peace---to the will of the Almighty (Allah) together with a striving after Truth so as to do the will of Allah. Submission and surrender are essentially the same thing, for both involve a letting-be and a calm acceptance of whatever is. The word ‘Islam’ refers to that total peace that comes from such submission or surrender.

In Islam this submission is anything but fatalism. It is often said in Islam that the Almighty does not change the fate of a person, or a people, unless that person or people changes what is in themselves. Also, the notion of insha’Allah (‘God willing’) embodies qualities such as patience, resoluteness, wisdom, compassion, equanimity and non-reactivity---all qualities that are otherwise embodied in mindfulness. The Arabic word sabr denotes a calm and unconditional acceptance of what is---that is, there here-and-now---manifesting itself in an imperturbability that refuses to succumb to worry and anxiety. Such equanimity can only arise when there is a calm acceptance of reality or life---on life’s own terms.

The monotheism in Islam may appear to some to be overly strict and remote but at least it avoids the anthropomorphism of traditional Christianity and embraces an ‘all-Encompassing’ Reality (Qur’an 2:115). Those words---‘all-Encompassing’---appear in many places throughout the Qur’an, which, it must be remembered, contains, among other things, the religious, civil, social, legal, and military codes of Islam. (You need to keep the latter especially in mind when reading portions that present as militant or aggressive in nature.) Now, Allah---‘the [sole] deity, God’---is ‘of all things, encompassing’ (Qur’an 4:126) and, as such, is not so much omnipresent but Omnipresence itself, for it is axiomatic in Islam that the Almighty Divine Life cannot be said to be ‘in’ any place nor be ‘everywhere.’ Nor can the Almighty Divine Life be said to be ‘nowhere.’ All such talk would limit the limitless.

In short, we are talking about an ‘all-Encompassing’ Reality---One Presence and One Power active in the universe. This is the true meaning of the statement, ‘There is no God but Allah’ (Qur’an 47:19). This uncreated and unmanifest Presence is not ‘transcendent’ in the Judeo-Christian sense---at least not in the sense of some supposed anthropomorphic deity in the ‘upper regions’ (whatever that means). No, we are talking about a Reality that is truly limitless, encompassing all things including all of space---and yet beyond all space as well. Nor is this Presence ‘immanent’ in the Christian sense, for the Presence cannot be said to be contained ‘in’ anything. Nor can this Presence be said to be in any way ‘separate’ from the universe (that is, the sum total of all that is) for the notion of separateness denotes divisibility whereas this Presence is indivisible. All in all, it is a mature concept of deity.

Now, you need not call this Omnipresence 'God' or ‘Allah’---I generally don’t---but you can if you wish. The really important thing, as I see it, is this---this boundless and limitless presence and power of life fills all, is all, and empowers all, for everything is truly an individualised expression of life.  This presence and power---this All-in-All---is most fully and personally experienced in the silence. It is experienced as peace, calmness, tranquility, equanimity, wisdom, love and compassion---indeed, as all those things ordinarily associates with the sacred or the divine. The regular practice of mindfulness affords a unique opportunity to cultivate these qualities---simply by a calm, choiceless awareness of whatever is.

This post would not be complete without at least some albeit brief mention of Sufism. Every religion has its ‘inner’ or esoteric side, and Islam is no exception. Like all mystics, the Sufis assert that it is possible to fully embrace the Divine Presence in this life. Almost every religion looks with suspicion upon the mystical tradition, the main reason being that if it be possible to embrace this Divine Life in some direct, immediate and unmediated fashion, then there is a loss of control, authority and dependency. How terrible! Bring it on.

Well, Divine Life or nothing, the ‘good news’ I have for each of you is this---Muslim or non-Muslim, believer or infidel, theist or non-theist, you can never be less than life, you can never be separate from life, and you are always---I repeat, always---in direct and immediate ‘contact’ (for want of a better word) with life in all its fullness. I don’t care if some call that heresy---and they will, because they want you to be in submission (that is, bondage) to them and their authority. Reject all such nonsense. Choose to be a heretic, for the word ‘heretic’ refers to one who chooses. As truth/reality/life is dynamic and never for one moment static, those who refuse to choose----and instead remain statically wedded and glued to some fixed, rigid and ‘authoritative’ view of reality---are simply not on the side of life. Simple as that.

So, why not choose to affirm your oneness with all that is---the ‘is’ being nothing less than the ever-dynamic, all-encompassing life as it unfolds incessantly from one moment to the next. Here’s some more good advice---‘Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others,’ wrote the Sufi mystic and poet Rumi (pictured), ‘Unfold your own myth.’

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MINDFULNESS AS SOFT FOCUS AWARENESS

One of the best books ever written on Mindfulness---not only for beginners but also for others---is Mindfulness in Plain English by the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk and author Bhante Henepola Gunaratana (pictured above). I wholeheartedly recommend it, as well as all other books written by ‘Bhante G.’

Mindfulness is many things, but above all Mindfulness is the bare attention to, and the choiceless (i.e. no preference, and no prejudice) awareness of, the action and content---both internal and external---of the present moment unfolding from one moment to the next. (Note. It is the attention that gives rise to the awareness.) Mindfulness is not only awareness, it is also the awareness of awareness. But exactly what sort of awareness? Well, for one thing, it is a curious awareness, that is, one in which the observer---that is, you, the person that you are (not some supposed 'inner' observer in your mind)---is open, spontaneous, passively inquisitive, and, above all else, flexible. Also, the awareness is not only direct and immediate, it is of a ‘soft focus’ kind. Never forget that. Bhante G has this to say about the matter: 

When you first become aware of something, there is a fleeting instant of pure awareness just before you conceptualize the thing, before you identify it. … It is that flashing split second just as you focus your eyes on the thing, just as you focus your mind on the thing, just before you objectify it, clamp down on it mentally and segregate it from the rest of existence. It takes place just before you start thinking about it--before your mind says, 'Oh, it's a dog.' That flowing, soft-focused moment of pure awareness is Mindfulness. In that brief flashing mind-moment you experience a thing as an un-thing. You experience a softly flowing moment of pure experience that is interlocked with the rest of reality, not separate from it. …

Bhante G goes on to say that Mindfulness is akin to what we see with our peripheral vision ‘as opposed to the hard focus of normal or central vision.’ Now, here is what I think is the really important thing. In Bhante G’s words:

Yet this moment of soft, unfocused, awareness contains a very deep sort of knowing that is lost as soon as you focus your mind and objectify the object into a thing. …

Let’s say that you’re driving your motor vehicle in the middle lane on a six-lane highway. Using your peripheral vision you become aware that there is on your side of the road and more-or-less level with you a red truck in the left lane and a black or dark blue car in the right lane---it doesn’t matter what. You are aware they are there. You don’t need to look closely. It’s more than sufficient that you’re aware they are there---and you immediately adjust your position in your lane to make sure there is no contact, while all the time keeping your eye on the road and looking directly ahead. That is the way to go!  

Bhante G makes the undeniable point that, in the ordinary course of our experience of things---that is, so-called ‘ordinary perception’---this ever-so-brief moment of ‘soft, unfocused, awareness is ‘so fleeting as to be unobservable.’ Yes, we squander the moment, so to speak. We let it die on us completely. So much of our so-called experience of life is, well, a total non-experience. We are not even ‘alive’ to it. Yes, I estimate that as much as 80 or 90 per cent of the moments of our life ‘experience’ are not experienced by us at all. It’s like we are not even alive for most of the time. Sad---very sad---when you stop to think about it.

Yes, we choose to be ‘alive’ (in a sort of a way) to some perceptions but we let it die on us and quickly make it---and ourselves---the past. We note the perception. We label the perception. We react to the perception (in the form of, say, attachment or aversion) on the basis of, among other things, mental images, memories, opinions, beliefs, judgments, prejudices, preferences, evaluations, as well as so-called knowledge and conditioning---and we interpret the perception. Instead of just 'seeing' or 'observing' in a direct, immediate and spontaneous manner, we subject the otherwise fleeting perception to the whole content of our consciousness stream. And, not only that, we start to analyse and judge it---thinking, thinking, thinking. There is no end to it. And where there is thought, there is no awareness. None.

The result---analysis paralysis, judgment, all rooted in the past. For varying lengths of time we cease to be present in the now---we’re stuck in the past. And that's not a good place to be.

In the words of Bhante G, ‘[t]hat original moment of Mindfulness is rapidly passed over.’ He then goes on to say that the purpose of Mindfulness Meditation is ‘to train us to prolong that moment of awareness.’ Now, we are talking about a 'still' moment of ‘pure’, unadulterated, unconditioned (that is, not-in-the-past) awareness---before we start mentally riding off in all directions, so to speak. Bhante G refers to this moment of awareness as a ‘flowing, soft-focused moment of pure awareness.’ Beautiful words. J. Krishnamurti has written, 'To see temporarily is sufficient. If you can see it for a fleeting second, it is enough, because you will then see an extraordinary thing taking place.' He is talking about an attention that is total and complete, that is, direct perception---without memory and thought taking any part in it. Elsewhere, Krishnamurti refers to the state of mind in which there is 'total seeing' as a 'state of negation' in which there is no identification and there are no evaluations, no justifications, no condemnations and no defences. It is a mind or mind-set that is 'choicelessly still,' yet at the same time 'fully awakened.' In the words of Krishnamurti, 'Seeing is one thing and seeing something is another.'

People say to me, ‘Surely there is a place for analysis, judgment, and the like?’ Of course there is. As a practising lawyer I would get nowhere without analysis and judgment of complex sets of facts and circumstances falling for consideration and advice. But, having said that, we are talking about moment-to-moment choiceless awareness and experience of life as it continuously unfolds from one moment to the next. Don’t let those precious moments ‘die’ on you by letting your mind stop to label, analyze and judge. Instead, stay soft-focused in the now, remaining curiously but passively alert to each perception---that is, ‘flashing mind-moment’---as close to its moment of ‘arising’ as is humanly possible in all the circumstances of the moment. Do that---and you will truly come alive!

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MINDFULNESS MEDITATION MAY SLOW THE AGING PROCESS

‘Anyone can get old,’ said the great comedian Groucho Marx (pictured left). ‘All you have to do is live long enough.’ He certainly did, although he didn’t enjoy great physical health in his later years.

A recent University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) study published online in the November 15, 2012 edition of the Association for Psychological Science journal Clinical Psychological Science has found that people who reported more presence ‘in the moment’ had longer telomeres, even after adjusting for current stress in their lives.

Telomeres are DNA-caps that prevent the ends of chromosomes from fusing with nearby chromosomes or deteriorating. They are biomarkers for aging and are known to get shorter and shorter when the body undergoes physiological and psychological stressors. What's more, as earlier research pioneered at UCSF showed, the shorter the telomeres, the earlier disease and death can be predicted.

The scientists studied 239 healthy women aged between 50 and 65 to see how many tended to be focused on the present and how many were inclined to focus on being elsewhere and on things other than the present. Those with more mind wandering had shorter telomeres. Whether the mind wandering causes the aging-linked shortening of telomeres or whether the state of being that focuses on the present actually protects telomeres isn't known yet. However, there is reason to suspect that being mindfully aware of the present could be the key. (Previous studies have found that mindfulness mediation is associated with increased activity of an enzyme known as telomerase, which is responsible for protecting and, in some cases, replenishing telomeres.)

The study supports the possibility that a focus on the present assists in the promotion of health even at the cellular level. ‘Our attentional state---where our thoughts rest at any moment---turns out to be a fascinating window into our well-being. It may be affected by our emotional state as well as shape our emotional state,’ said Dr Elissa Epel, associate professor of psychiatry and lead author on the study. ‘In our healthy sample, people who report being more engaged in their current activities tend to have longer telomeres. We don’t yet know how generalizable or important this relationship is.’

Moving forward, Epel, along with Dr Eli Puterman, a psychologist in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and colleagues are developing a series of classes to promote more mindful presence, to see if this intervention protects telomere maintenance or even lengthens telomeres.

Journal Reference:

E S Epel, E Puterman, J Lin, E Blackburn, A Lazaro, W B Mendes. ‘Wandering Minds and Aging Cells.’ Clinical Psychological Science, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/2167702612460234

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LIVE FROM MOMENT TO MOMENT … NOT IN THE MOMENT

TO GET BETTER, AND BE HAPPY, GIVE UP ALL BELIEFS!

Forgive me, but I wish to return to a familiar theme of mine. Why? Because I think it is the most important thing I have to say. It is this---if you want to get better, if you want to be truly happy, if you want to know and understand life, give up all your beliefs. Yes, all of them.

There are many things wrong with beliefs and belief-systems. Here a just a few of them.

First, beliefs fetter and cage the mind. They prevent us from knowing and understanding reality as it unfolds from one moment to the next. Beliefs, by their very nature, take the form of second or third-hand prejudices, or biases, of various kinds. The Buddha referred to beliefs as being in the nature of thought coverings or veils (āvarnas). You see, each one of us is in direct and immediate contact with reality---both internal and external---unless we choose to put a barrier between ourselves and reality. When we believe something about some aspect of reality, a thought covering or veil is placed between us and reality, blocking off the latter. Using a different metaphor, beliefs are like distorting lenses which filter and distort reality as it tries to pass through the lens. If you want to see, know and understand things-as-they-really-are, discard your beliefs. You don’t need any of them.

Secondly---and this follows on directly from what I’ve just said---beliefs, being entirely a product of the past, are a substitute (and a very bad one at that) for reality. When you take on a belief system, you cease to be choicelessly aware of life. Beliefs are not real. Reality is. Beliefs are crystallized or hardened thoughts---a form of ‘psychosclerosis’ (a term I heard Norman Vincent Peale use in a talk many decades ago). You see, every belief is some other person or group’s collective thinking and conditioning, and when you believe you take onboard that other person or group’s thinking and conditioning---a pernicious form of mind control (whether internal or external or both). The result? An 'infected' mind. You stop thinking for yourself and experiencing life in all its directness and immediacy. Vernon Howard has written of the miserable person who, not knowing things 'from their own essence,' must endlessly switch their beliefs ‘from one authority to another.’ That's a terrible way to 'live'! Now, remember this---whether or not something is the case does not depend upon belief or disbelief. That is why the Buddha said, 'Do not believe, for if you believe, you will never know. If you really want to know, don't believe.' Beliefs are the most powerful, and the most dangerous, form of conditioning known to humanity.

Thirdly, beliefs, more than any other thing (eg race, skin colour, ethnicity, nationality), create deep divisions and separate people one from the other. Catholics are separated from Baptists. Muslims are separated from Jews and Buddhists. Communists are separated from believers in capitalism. With separation and division comes conflict, turmoil and strife. There is no end to it. I laugh when I hear some religious leader talking about ‘brotherhood.’ There can be no world brotherhood or sisterhood for so long as there are religious distinctions---for example, when people are divided up between the ‘saved’ and the ‘unsaved’, the ‘chosen’ and the rest, and so on.

Fourthly, beliefs prevent freedom of thought. As already mentioned, beliefs are a form of collective thinking, and all such thinking is the result and reaction of memory. In such a conditioned state of mind, there is no ability to think freely. Even the desire to think freely is lost. Any 'true' (ha!) believer is constantly exhorted by those in authority to believe more deeply and fully, to have more faith. The result? You build a bigger cage---or prison---for your brain and thus for yourself. Great stuff.

Fifthly, beliefs hold us back---indeed, they make and keep us sick. Examine your beliefs and belief-systems. Have they really made you happier? Do they really make it easier for you to see, know and understand things-as-they-really-are? Now, please be rigorously honest with yourself. You may have been a devout---or perhaps only a nominal---believer in some religion or political ideology all your life, but if it be the case that you are ordinarily anxious, depressed or the like, or have constant difficulties relating to other people, or think the world will be a better place if others believed the same things you do, then I respectfully submit that your belief-system has done absolutely no good for you at all. Krishnamurti put it this way many decades ago:

'So, your belief in God, or your disbelief in God, to me are both the same, because they have no reality. If you were really aware of truth, as you are aware of that flower, if you were really conscious of that truth as you are conscious of fresh air, then your whole life, your whole conduct, your whole behaviour, your very affections, your very thoughts, would be different.'

I tell you this---whether you want to hear it or not. You will never---I repeat, never---be able to experience any meaningful, lasting change in your life for so long as you remain wedded to your beliefs and belief-systems. If you want to recover from any illness, disability or condition, the first thing you must do to get better is to see, know and understand things-as-they-really-are. Do you believe in the sun? Of course not. You know it’s there, so there’s no need to believe in it. We tend only to believe in things we don’t know or understand as well as things the existence of which is either unproven or unprovable. Funny, that.

So, forget about belief-systems. Indeed, why not start today on a lifelong process of purgation of the mind, in which you choose not to believe, or disbelieve, in anything. You set yourself just one goal---to be choicelessly aware of all things as they unfold from one moment to the next. That way you will come to know and understand---and nothing is more important than that.

Beliefs are for ‘spiritual cripples’--that is, for those who can’t, or won’t, think for themselves, for those who choose not to know and understand. Choose to be different. Choose not to be deluded. Choose to have and enjoy an uninfected mind. Choose life.

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SOLIDS, DOUBLETS AND TRIPLETS AS RESPECTS MINDFULNESS

(L to R) Fossicking at Lightning Ridge---Aerial View of White Cliffs

My wife and I have just returned from a couple of weeks’ touring and exploring outback New South Wales. This was not the first time we have toured and explored this part of New South Wales but it was the first time we had been to the opal mining towns of Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs. Sadly, the only opals we brought back with us were the ones we bought in shops, but the truth is we had little time for fossicking. We did, however, learn a few things about opals---for example, an opal can be cut and made into a solid, a doublet, or a triplet.

A solid, as its name suggests, is a fully natural stone, which is then cut and polished. A doublet consists of two pieces of opal cemented together. For example, a layer of high-grade opal may be bonded to a black back. Then there is a triplet, which is a doublet made from a wafer thin layer of opal with a clear domed glass or quartz cap glued on its face.

This got me thinking---something I don’t do all that often. When it comes to the practice of mindfulness, there are solids, doublets and triplets. A solid is one who is regular in their practice of mindfulness, seldom lapsing into mindless thinking and living. A doublet is half-hearted at best when it comes to the practice of mindfulness. Yes, there is a certain commitment to mindful living, but this commitment waxes and wanes. Then there’s the triplet, who sees the value in mindful living but is far too wedded to either material things or traditional religious beliefs to make any real progress in the practice of mindfulness.

Each one of us is an opal---a gem---in need of daily cutting and polishing.

I ask you this---are you a solid, a doublet, or a triplet?

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO ON MINDFULNESS

With more than a little nod to

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello,

who filled the void for decades and
who continue to help make my life worth living

Lou Costello [LC]: Heeeyyy A-bbott!  

Bud Abbott [BA]: What d’ya want, Costello?

LC: I want to know how your mindfulness class went.

BA: The mindfulness class went all day. And I’m very pleased to say---I now have no-mind.

LC: Is that good?

BA: Good? It’s wonderful! Having no-mind is something I've always wanted. Mind you, there is so much I've had to stop doing in order to achieve this state of no-mindedness.

LC: You keep saying to me that I have no mind, Abbott.

BA: That’s true. You have absolutely no mind at all. You’re just a lazy, stupid idiot, Costello. 

LC: Thanks, Abbott. But at least I didn’t need to go to mindfulness class to learn that.

BA: You don’t understand, Costello. There’s a whole world of difference between having no-mind and being stupid. I have no-mind. You’re just plain stupid.

LC: You have no mind but you’re not stupid?

BA: Exactly.

LC: How can you have no mind and not be stupid?

BA: It’s easy. Having no-mind means you have attained wisdom and enlightenment. When you have no-mind you are a whole person.

LC: A hole what? How can a person be a hole?

BA: Look, Costello, a person is not a hole, but a person can be whole, if they have, er, no-mind.

LC: A person is, er, hole if they have no mind?

BA: Exactly.

LC: I don’t even know what I’m talking about!

BA: That’s all there is to it. Having no-mind is being whole---and empty. Then it’s full.

LC: How can it be both empty and full at the same time?

BA: Easy. It just happens---when there’s no thought.

LC: No thought of what?

BA: What's on second---we're not talking about him. Costello, I have no thought of anything. I have no-mind because my mind is mindfully empty---that’s why it’s full.

LC: You just said you have no mind, so how can something that doesn’t exist be both full and empty at the same time?

BA: A mindful mind is a mind of no-mind, Costello.  That’s the only sort of mind worth having---mindful and empty.

LC: Mind full---and empty?

BA: Exactly. Full of no-thing.

LC: Here we go again!

BA: Don’t get excited, Costello. You have no mind, which is why you’re stupid. I, on the other hand, have no-mind, which is why I’m not stupid.

LC: How is it that you’re not stupid, even though you have no mind?

BA: It’s simple. My mind has gone.

LC: You’re telling me! Gone where?

BA: Just gone.

LC: If it’s gone, it must have gone some place, Abbott!

BA: Look, Costello, a mind is gone when it’s fully present.

LC: How can it be gone and fully present at the same time?

BA: That’s how it happens. A mind is gone when it stays fully present in the now. Then it’s an empty mind of no-mind.

LC: How can a mind be a mind and no mind at the same time?

BA: It’s simple. A mind is no-minded when it’s gone, that is, when it is fully engaged in being here and now.

LC: Engaged to who?

BA: Just engaged. Who is on first---we're not talking about him.

LC: If you’re engaged, you got to be engaged to somebody, Abbott!

BA: Look, Costello. I am not engaged, it’s just my mind that’s engaged.

LC: How can a mind be engaged?

BA: A mind is engaged when it is … ah … present.

LC: An engagement present?

BA: Talk sense, Costello!

LC: How can a mind be a present?

BA: Look, Costello. A mind is not a present. It is just … ah … present, but only when it is gone.

LC: Here we go again!

BA: I don’t know what I’m going to do with you, Costello. We talk and talk but it gets us nowhere. You just have no mind at all.

LC: Then I’m exactly like you.

BA: You’re nothing of the kind. I have no-mind, but you’re just mindless---and stupid.

LC: But you’re not?

BA: Exactly. I have no-mind because I’m mindful.

LC: Listen, Abbott, how can your mind be full if you have no mind?

BA: Get outa here, Costello!

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Important Note---and Grateful Acknowledgments

The licensable images of Abbott and Costello, the routine ‘Who's on First’ and other routines and materials of and by Abbott and Costello are controlled material of the Estates of the Late Bud Abbott and the Late Lou Costello. All rights reserved. The routine presented in this post has been written by Ian Ellis-Jones as a homage to Abbott and Costello and is presented here for entertainment, nonprofit and non-commercial purposes only. There is no intention to infringe copyright or any other controlled material. This post, and the blog site itself, are solely for informational and educational purposes that are entirely nonprofit and non-commercial in nature, intent and actuality.