Tea Leaves And The Shift to Spontaneous Mindfulness
Paul raised an important question in my last post about mindfulness. He was wondering if the process of being mindfull will be seen as a quick fix approach to stress. Short answer is: yes. Especially if it is seen as something to "do" in order to solve a problem. Or if it is used to temporarily give a person a quick break and then plunge right back into the ongoing events which are creating the problem.
And then someone (Bob) asked me how it can generalize such that it has more far-reaching effects beyond the several minutes of the "mindfulness minutes" exercise I suggested.
Here's my brief attempt at an answer. Consider tea leaves which are sitting in water. They are just there. But they are also changing the immediate area around them by, shall we say, sharing their essence with the water. Eventually that process will expand, with just a little movement to the entire pot of tea, even when the tea leaves are removed.
When I offered this idea, he spontaneously offered that he found himself being "mindful" of the water during a shower - without any formal attempt or suggestion to do so. He had been practising the mindful minutes "exercise" and could readily see how my explanation fit his experience, i.e., the moments surrounding the mindfulness minutes spontaneously spread without any effort or even awareness into other parts of his experience.
If I may, I like this explanation.
PostScript: I am not addressing the question of whether longer periods of mindfulness practise will create a different experience of mindfulness. Then we would have an interesting process of one word describing different experiences - but I suspect that both short "exposures" and longer periods of "sitting" are tapping into the same process.
3 comments:
Tim, could it be that mindfulness is part of a more "natural" state that we have lost? Are animals mindful? Taken as a group, were shepherds 100+ years ago more mindful than we are today? Are children mindful before they acquire language?
In your last post you wrote "Whatever you become aware of bring your awareness to it. The second learned reflex during the mindfulness minutes is to not make any judgements about what you are aware of or experiencing. The strategy is one of watching and being aware without the need to label and differentiate." That's a tough challenge in today's world where we have been conditioned and are constantly subjected to marketing that's designed to grab our attention and cause us to judge a product or idea so valuable that we must take action.
This may sound self-serving but I want to pose this question. Would we find it easy -- perhaps almost effortless -- to become mindful much of the time if we moved to a rural area, reduced our consumption of all forms of media, minimized our dependence on convenience appliances and slipped into the rhythms and routines of the natural world? But, this is not an option for most of us so we have to find ways to be mindful in the midst of our situations and brew spontaneous mindfulness.
(PS: Thanks for your frappe recipe. We've tried some similar concoctions but we've never included apple or brewer's yeast. I'm going to try adding these ingredients.)
Paul,
I may have to end this comment abruptly because Patriot Nation is chomping at the bit to start the super bowl.
There's a book that came out in 1981 called "Voluntary Simplicity," by Duane Elgin. The subtitle was: "Toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich." Great title, and it goes to the heart of what you are saying.
In the introduction, Ram Dass talks about looking out over a gentle valley in the Kumoan Hills at the base of the Himalayas. He is gazing on a scene which captures the sense of timelessness and tranquility and the village which is in the center of it all.
He then goes on to notice some static and a young man who is walking with a radio to his ear and a silver wrist watch sparkling in the sun. He looks proudly at Ram Dass as he passes and "a wave of understanding passes through me. Just behind the radio and the wristwatch comes an army of desires that for centuries have gone untested and untasted."
Later in the introduction he comes back to this theme and praises those who can "look to the future and see through the smoke to the sunlight." He offers hope to that young man who is enthralled with the trinkets and the signs of "advancement" and who may come to see it and see through it.
As a young man I was drawn to those excitements. As a middle aged man I became disillusioned with them and had to walk through different valleys all the while shedding those "attachments" which still lingered. As an older man I cherish my time and simple things, and all of the earlier parts of the journey help to add texture and depth to it.
Trying to see things whole, the smoke and the mirrors, and not chasing after as many shadows helps.
We are all at risk of being manipulated by those who create the pictures, the world views which we take for "the truth" and it takes a long time to break the addictions which perpetuate those patterns which are primarily to the advantage of the spinmeisters -and they are not our friends.
Go Pats!
Tim
"I'm not procrastinating, I'm being mindful of the moment." :) That is just the kind of quips I used say to my mom who would nag me endlessly whenever I came home from school or work.
The past year or two, I've become especially fond of taking moments to stop and appreciate the birds. They just seem so happy and curious to be "in the moment" as they are.
-P
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