Your life’s happiness
is directly proportional
to mindfulness of life itself.While unmindfulness prolongs suffering,
Right Mindfulness lessens suffering,
and approaches True Happiness.— Stonepeace | Get Books
When we speak of the cultivation of Right Mindfulness as part of treading the Noble Eightfold Path towards liberation from suffering, we often mistaken it to be a dry practice, where we sit still and watch our breathing, with nothing much going on. As experienced meditators would tell you, this cannot be further from the truth, as with the various mind games our minds play with us, learning to be mindful is quite an intriguing adventure! That said, seated meditation might still give rise to the image of tiresome routine. Again, this is far from true, for each moment of meditation is new and full of potential for deeper insight.
If even mindfulness meditation is never boring, where something as ‘simple’ as watching the breath is refreshing, everything else in life can be just as, if not more interesting. The breath is deemed uninteresting only when one is unmindful of it, thus lacking appreciation of its subtleties, its effects on our mind, and how it reflects the workings of our mind itself. If one does not genuinely enjoy something as immediate and ever-present (while alive) as breathing, how can one be said to have even begun to enjoy life? Indeed, to enjoy life’s experiences, mindfulness is absolutely needed. The reverse is also true — the unmindful suffer the most, as they remain unaware of how they sabotage themselves with their poor attitudes.
If you reflect more deeply, in order to enjoy even a massage, mindfulness is needed. There has to be awareness in the here and now, the full experiencing of the soothing touches that eases the body’s tensions. If you are 100% mindful, you will enjoy the massage session 100%. If you are 80% mindful, enjoyment is discounted by 20%. If you are mindful only half of the time, with the other half of the time absent, the mind adrift, lost in another place and time, you will enjoy the massage only half of the time. The worst-case scenario is to be totally unmindful, mindless — asleep! The best massage becomes as if no massage! Yes indeed, even in order to relax physically, mindfulness is needed. What more to say, to deeply savour life’s ups and downs to fully experience and make the best of its entirety!
If you live fully in each and every moment,
you will fully live and enjoy your life.
Even sweeping will no longer be a chore.— Stonepeace | Get Books
