Paying Attention to Your Mind at this Moment

     This information comes from a link that I like at Wildmind Buddist Meditation.
Remember I said that I like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally.” Kabat-Zinn, if you haven’t heard of him, is a famous teacher of mindfulness meditation and the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

     First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention “on purpose”. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about “mindfulness” and “awareness” as if they were interchangeable terms, but that’s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I’m irritable, but that wouldn’t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.

     Let’s take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We’re deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We’re noticing the mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back.

     When we’re eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we’re doing, but we’re probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading — or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions. Because we’re only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There’s no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There’s no purposefulness.

     This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that’s the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind. Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts — including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer.

     By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some “anchor” we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.

The Most Important KIND of Thinking

     Think about what you think about.

     You have no doubt heard, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." Idle mind? Probably means not thinking about what you are thinking about....or simply being unaware of what you are thinking.

    "Penny for your thoughts". A question that often comes to us as we stare off into space, as if we are in the deepest kind of thought. Our usual response? "Huh? I don't know."

     One of the many things I admire about Buddist philosophy is the concept of "Mindfulness". I like Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition of mindfulness.


                         “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way;
                          On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

     It is vitally important that we pay attention to what we are thinking, since our thinking determines our feelings and behaviors. Our life is our thinking. We would not neglect a small child, leaving him or her unattended. Neither should we leave our mind, our thinking, unattended. I will soon post a full article related to Kabat-Zimm's definition of mindfulness.

     Notice the Video Collections related to Critical Thinking, which is found in the Gadget "The Most Important Kind of Thinking. AND, I would challenge you to become a better thinker by learning how to think more critically. Critical thinking has nothing to do with being negative or critical of others or ideas. It is a way of thinking that seeks truth more than anything else. There is freedom in the truth and there is joy in the unbiased hunt for it.