Two views of mindfulness

Mindfulness came up in conversation several times over the last few days. But there was confusion because some people (eg mature, atheistic, freelance intellectuals) used the word in its ordinary sense while others (eg me) used it in its more specialized sense.

The dictionaries suggest that mindfulness involves being aware, careful and heedful, and being attentive to duties and responsibilities. This suggests a moral component where the opposite of mindful would be unaware, careless, heedless, inattentive, mindless or forgetful.

Some of the intellectuals (I chatted with three of them) had a more nuanced view of the ordinary version.

If mindfulness brings peace of mind then it may be a common mental state as demonstrated by old men at the street corner sucking peacefully on their pipes. They are retired, relaxed and ready to meet their maker. But pipe smoking sages may no longer exist in these modern times. And, whether accurate or not, that view of mindfulness lacks the structure, techniques and rigor of the specialized version.

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of the specialized version is now widely used -

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally."

The definition is explained in the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme of “the Mindful consultancy”. The idea is that most of us, most of the time, operate on auto-pilot which is “a condition in which somebody is not fully aware of what he or she is doing but is acting in a habitual and unthinking way”. Thus we mindlessly react from habit rather than mindfully respond from wisdom. We therefore behave like unenlightened robots.

The tasks in MBSR are (a) to slow down and calm the monkey mind and (b) to withdraw the tentacles that flail in the past and future - on autopilot. We can then locate ourselves in the present moment and thus be awake to and aware of what is actually happening NOW.

This suggests that the ‘self’ has two aspects – the auto-pilot and the witness.

The auto-pilot has both routine and creative aspects. The routine activities include (a) walking, eating and other basic physiological functions and (b) the customs, habits and taboos of social and cultural interactions.

Note that there can also be remarkable creativity while on autopilot. The ‘self’ can be switched off such that the musician is in the groove, the athlete is in the zone, the unconscious muse dictates to the conscious poet - and generally there is ‘flow’.

And then it is ‘as if’ there was a witness to what goes on in the mind. One meditation technique for beginners is to patiently and gently bear non-judgmental witness to the thoughts and feelings that drift through the attention centre. Another technique is to tame the churning mind by focusing attention on the breathing. When other thoughts and feelings capture attention just notice, let go, and return to the breathing.

Once you have tamed the mind you can concentrate and thus be more awake to, and aware of, what is going on in the world and in your mind. ‘You’ begin to have the freedom to choose where your mind goes. Mindless reaction is replaced by mindful response. Numinous appreciation becomes a regular mind state. There is increased creativity. There is less anxiety and panic.

The MBSR approach is based on Buddhist theory and practice but links to Positive Psychology and to Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). In these troubled times, this emergent Western interpretation of the Eastern system aims to develop a more robust self. The Eastern view is that the self is an illusion. This crucial difference is rooted in cultural belief patterns which are linked to problems of translation from the original Pali and Sanskrit.

>>>>>

• The Buddhist term translated into English as "mindfulness" comes from the Pali term sati and its Sanskrit counterpart smṛti. Translators rendered the Sanskrit word as trenpa in Tibetan and as nian in Chinese.
• Mindfulness is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) and is an antidote to delusion.
• In the Satipatthana Sutra the Buddha advocated that you should establish mindfulness in your day-to-day life and maintain, as much as possible, a calm awareness of your body, sensations (or feelings), mind (or consciousness) and mental contents.
• The practice of mindfulness supports analysis that results in the arising of wisdom.
• "Correct" or "right" mindfulness is the seventh element of the noble eightfold path.

>>>>> Various sources.

SO – there are two views of mindfulness. The root problem in both cases is the uncontrolled self and the tendency to run on auto-pilot and thus to mindlessly react rather than to mindfully respond.

The western solution is to make the self stronger by more or less formal talking about it.

The eastern solution uses stillness to realize the non existence of self as an abiding entity.