What is mindfulness?

[donq]

I've been here for more than five years. As I've known that we come from diffrent cultures/believes, I rarely talked about what I really believe (in Buddhism). Anyway, today might be the day. Well, who knows I might die tomorrow as I'm getting close to it everyday.

There's a book called, "Mindfulness in Plain English" which has nothing to do with what I'm going to say. Hmm...this post might be "mindfulness in painful English"? (as my English is always that bad).

What I'm going to say is my view, and my view only. It comes from my long time praticing of mindfulness for more than 35 years. I will not quote anyone. It's from my pure (personal) experiences.

In the last 10 years, mindfulness has been accepted in the Western world more and more, especailly in psychology/psychotherapy. I recalled that around 20 years ago, when I posted about it on some spritual forums, most forumites still thought it was another kind of meditation. It is not. It's an awareness. Let me put it in this way, meditation is the way not to think about anything except focusing on one thing you are focusing, hence, meditating, while mindfulness is not focusing on anything but watching (aware of) every thing (in this aspect, it's some kind of looping meditation).

So, what really is mindfulness?
It's a spiritual checking system or (developing) conscience system. Checking for what? For whether whatever we've done, spoken and thought were right or wrong. Yes, whenever our ego come to play, it's always hard to discern right from wrong. But at least mindfulness helps us to check it again and rethink or think twice about what we have done.
(I'll skip the process of practicing here. Maybe some day later?)

After practing about it for some times, you have to deal directly with your own thoughts/thinking.
It's said that your thought is like a rat, and your mindfulness a cat. Yes, if there's not mindfulness there (when cats away), mice will play. They always play.
When you was going to say something but your mindfulness came to check it in time, then you could see your own thought/thinking that it came from your anger, greed or ignorance etc. For example, I was going to say something nice to a woman I've just met, then, my checking system (mindfulness) has found that it didn't come from my politeness but my mild lust (just wanting to please that beautiful woman so that she would like me in return).

Normally, a rat should be afraid of a cat. The problem is it's not always be that way. Once I myself found three cats gathered around the bin. I was curious and stopped to see why. There was a rat there. Those cats were hesitate to do anything because that rat was so big. Too big!

All our lives, we let your rats (thought) become too big until they control us. We have to regret what we did, said later and would like to take them back. We never could. And some people even could not see their owns thoughts any more.

And after you could "see" your own thoughts, the next step is to see you own feelings, your inner mind and the space that your inner mind happpens. (a very very long story, I'll skip it here).

P.S. I honestly hope that I haven't ruin this forum by this post. If it's so, I have to apologize. I didn't mean to "sell" anything, even Buddhism I do believe.

[gruntal]

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how, looking at my past, I got involved in things or just put my all into what I was doing to the extent I let that identify me. All the more vexing is going in to my sanctum now and playing with my cards and trying to put away all the little mechanical projects I was involved with during the day. The oracle cards do not give exact answers; they do suggest new different ways to interpret what is already occurring in my life.

So what is my true identity that I will have throughout all eternity?

That reminds me of one of the perennial Rosicrucian tenants: two people can hear the same sermon or read the same monograph but one distorts or is incapable of understanding. " Make the hearts of this people calloused; deafen their ears and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed". But that doesn't mean things won't ever change.

At some level it is suggested spiritual people by birthright just naturally develop occult powers. But at another level it is the greatest affirmation of the existence of your Third Eye that you can perceive the hidden even if you are not able to manipulate it yet. I used to be a bit jealous of the girls in my local classes that could do "parlor tricks" and seemingly were more spiritual then me. But then I realized they did not act any nicer then me or even want to explore the subtle concepts I hungered for.

So what can I say besides it is a very lonely thankless existence. But I just had to get away because the alternatives were even worse. You can never go back ....

[aceofcups]

Psychic Powers Do Not Demonstrate Spirituality by William Bloom -- posting this article in response to George's remarks about Psychic versus Spiritual.. has nothing to do with topic of mindfulness - sorry. is mindfulness a siddhi for some?)

Article:
I want people to understand the difference in order to save them the kind of confusion I experienced and which took me almost fifteen years to clear up. As a teenager and in my early twenties, I came across many people with interesting powers. They could move objects with their thought energy. They could clairvoyantly see things. They could talk with angels and spirits. They could make things happen. And I was ready to give them respect and to sit at their feet and learn.

Unfortunately most of them were not very nice and not very wise. I can still vividly remember one man, sitting in a sofa, who looked at me with a glance that said watch this. He then directed his energy so that someone walking through the doorway suddenly fell backwards as if pushed by an invisible force. The man then glanced back at me with mischievous eyes, inviting me to become his student. I did not

>But I was perplexed. How was it that this prankster had these powers? I assumed that these kinds of powers went hand in hand with spiritual development.

VISUALIZATION AND IMAGE WORK

I was also confused by the whole business of visualization and imagery, which was presented as such an important part of spiritual development. I was not very good at image work. I could not imagine vivid colors or detailed images. Other people seemed to do it easily and I assumed they were more spiritual than me. My confusion increased when these people talked about their visions in a boastful way and did little interpretation of what the visions actually meant. These people were also usually closed to exploring different interpretations of their imagery. The simple question how do you know this isn’t just your imagination? was not welcomed. But it is such a crucial question.

As I progressed, I began to realize that the ability to manipulate energy or work with imagery did not mean that I or someone else was spiritual. I began to understand that clairvoyance, psychism and energy manipulation were skills and tools like plumbing, embroidery, mechanics or banking. Being expert at them or having a natural talent for them was meaningless when related to spirituality. Spirituality, for me and I dare say for most people, is about a deepening connection with the wonder and spirit of life; is about wisdom, compassion and expanding consciousness; is about harmoniously serving the community.


HIGHER AND LOWER SIDDHIS

Years later, reading some of the Hindu scriptures and in particular a wonderful, short scripture called The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I finally came across clear teachings that described these metaphysical skills and abilities, and said explicitly that they had nothing to do with spiritual attainment. In the Hindu scriptures these occult skills are called siddhis. There are higher siddhis and lower siddhis. The lower ones are to do with clairvoyance, psychism and the manipulation of energy. The higher ones are to do with expansions of consciousness, discernment and the ability, for example, to blend with new dimensions.

There is also an explanation of why people have these lower siddhis. They are a test. The souls lesson to dismantle the illusion that siddhis give status and use them purely for service.

My partner of 20 years, Sabrina, is also clear about this. She comes from an ancestry of healers and psychics, and is clairvoyant. She suggests that clairvoyance is sometimes for remedial students. Getting the visual perception may be exciting or entertaining, but you then have to interpret it. The higher siddhi, she suggests, is direct knowing. Direct knowing is quicker and more accurate. spiritual communications happen through feelings. Go into a forest or beautiful place of worship and be still. You will feel beautiful things. You feel it; you know it. For most people, in my opinion, it is a distraction to want the lower siddhi of having visions. I would far rather feel and know directly.

BREATHING FIRE

Returning home from holiday once, there was a message on my answering machine from a scientist friend saying, William, Sabrina, you might want to come over. We have a Ceylonese miracle man staying with us who can breathe light and fire.

We did not even unpack, but zipped over to witness this man who could make light and fire manifest in his breath. More than that, if he breathed it into your forehead or chest, it felt warm and energising. I was mightily impressed and began to put some time into promoting him. I then discovered that he was unable to keep his hands off women, had an uncontrollable gambling habit and the emotions of a five year old. I disengaged.

The phenomenon of the fire in his breath was useful. It opened people up to the possibility of other realms and dimensions. But his spiritual development did not match his miracle-making.

Of course I am still intrigued by and enjoy psychic powers and phenomena. I really like them. But I don’t confuse them with spiritual development.

[donq]

Hi Gruntal,

Thanks for your post. Sometimes I feel a bit lonely here. lol

You said, "one of the perennial Rosicrucian tenants: two people can hear the same sermon or read the same monograph but one distorts or is incapable of understanding."
Very true. Not only in sprituality. Once I joined the meeting duscussion about on of Dostoevsky's book, Crime and punishment. I had to came home with perplexity and aked myself, "Did they really read the same book?" lol

You said, "At some level it is suggested spiritual people by birthright just naturally develop occult powers. But at another level it is the greatest affirmation of the existence of your Third Eye that you can perceive the hidden even if you are not able to manipulate it yet."

I'll talk about this point below.

Hi Ace,

You are always welcome.

You asked, "is mindfulness a siddhi for some?"
(for another readers, "siddhi" means "enlightenment and/or paranormal power attainment by siddha or yogi).
And about what George said on the Third Eye. Is it for everyone or only for someone?

This brings us back for some thousand years' question. Mencius (372–289 BC), believed that "Human nature is good". While Xunzi/Hsün Tzu (3rd-century BC) believed "human nature is bad".

Was everyone, even Hitler, born with innate good but was contaminated later (some bad circumstances etc.) and became his trauma until he was that bad? Or was Hitler born that bad, and no matter what he would become who he really was eventually?

When I was a young man, I was so naive to believe that everyone was good. After I got old I had learned the hard way that some people were really bad, that bad. Please understand that, because of my spritual practice, this didn't affect how I would treat them. But the fact still remains that they are bad people and you should walk away from them, if you could.

As for sprituality and psychic/paranormal powers, William Bloom's article was so good (and he was so brave). It clarifed the important point of sprituality.
There was old warning about this, paranormal powers are like the jewels (even rare diamonds) almost every spiritual persons found on their spiritual path. It was just a test (if not an illusion) to lure them off the track, off the right way.

Back to mindfulness and the third eye, were we born with it or we have to develop it later?
Why some people who never practice any spirituality seem to be more spiritual than some spiritual persons themselve? I mean about doing the good things and not doing the bad things. Not to mention about ego. Some spiritual persons seemed to have very BIG ego.

IMO, I think we were born with potential, both to be good and to be bad. As for mindfulness, if you were born with good conscience and naturally developing all your life, whether you know it or not, then, you don't need mindfulness or any spritual practice. On the contrary, if we, like most people, were contaminated with our ego/thoughts bit by bit, until they control us in every way, then we do need something to bring us back to ourselves: spiritual practice, mindfulness etc.
An example's come to my mind, "if you always know in your heart, or by yourselve, that drinking (alcohol) is not good as it will only cloud your conscience, then, you don't need any means to stop you from drinking it. But if you are already alcoholic, then, you might need something to fight back, to be yourselve again, don't you?

Another question remains, what if you already are (realy) good persons, do you need to practice mindfulness (or any spritual practice to get psychic/paranormal powers)? Kind of being good is not enough, you still want to be the best. Well, it seems there's already hidden answer in that question, isn't it?

P.S. Sorry for any error and typo. 

[mojomojo]

Hello to all, what a very interesting post,
I can only speak from my own experience, which reminds me of a bit of graffiti, I read yesterday morning while out for a walk, "Be yourself, everyone else is taken."
My first ventures into the paranormal came by way of tarot cards, I do not consider tarot cards to be a spiritual practice, but they definitely open up a channel. You often hear people say, all psychics and mediums are charlatans, Im afraid I have to put that in the same context as a jilted woman who claims all men are b******s. Foresight is very real, I know from experience, but I would not claim it comes from been spiritual, I have come across many mediums who were not nice people, some even down right arrogant.
Second point, every time I take up spiritual practices, within a short period of time, poetry just flows out of me, without any effort on my part, I have no interest in poetry, but there you go.
If I stop spiritual practice, the poetry stops, so is this creative out pouring a result of been spiritual?
I agree in that I see these gifts, for want of a better word, as detours, that which will cause you to stray from the main path. It is stated, that we should not get caught up in these things, and the same seems to apply to visions experienced in meditation. but I defy anyone not to be effected by these visions, they are so powerful, more real than life itself and the feelings and emotion that comes with them, it takes great strength and discipline not to be effected.
Now, heres the question, at the time, my visions, and everything else were telling me to become a healer, my wife went to a psychic who spent the entire time telling her, that her husband was a healer, if these visions and foresight are meant to be ignored, does that then imply, that which they point to, should be ignored also.
You see, doubt started settling in my mind, why should I, someone on the path a short period of time, be experiencing all this, I was not a pious person in my early years, far from it. One day in meditation I received an answer to a question my wife had asked, this happened often between us, the answer I got was, "The girl in university, is out for what she can get."
Now, as thankful as I was for receiving such insight, I could not help wondering, is this the type of thing God concerns himself with. Then the lines from the Bhavagad Gita came to mind, "The pure sacrifice to the Gods,the passionate to spirits and demons, men of darkness to disembodied spirits." I do not claim to be an expert on the subject by any means, but I find it hard to believe, we can be pure of heart one minute, passionate the next, with the occasional trip to disembodied spirits, but then maybe Im wrong.
The only other consideration, is that we have an ideal, an image of what a spiritual person should look like and act like, maybe our preconceived ideas are off base.

[gruntal]

This involves some secret esoterica I either can not divulge or don't want to because I only know such a small part of it I fear I would mess things up if I babbled too much. Suffice it to say in recent years is it more or less accepted the universe is so vast there could be other semi or non humans out there. What is only admitted in the wonderful world of spirituality is that that concept also applies to the one considering it in evaluating one's past lives. In other words if there are strange things out there they could be very be US slightly removed.

Even more telling is any one person has a physical genetic heritage but also a spiritual heritage that is completely separate from blood lines. You have red hair because your Scots Irish but who knows why you tend to act a certain way? I was told I come from a long line of "techies" and chanting and/or howling at the moon was nothing I did or wanted to do ever. It was just NOT my first nature to deal with things that way no matter what body I chose to inhabit.

That may explain why some people just exist so gracefully and others feel so uncomfortable. "Go against the grain". "Break the mold". "Why can't you be normal?!" At some level we make choices. But at another level we don't have much choice if it means denouncing ourselves ....