Mindfulness.
It’s not something one can do.
It is the natural, unforced state of awareness,
discovered when one ceases to be fascinated
and endlessly distracted by all the busy-ness of ‘my life’,
the time-bound need to ‘just do this first’ before I can practice.
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This natural state is your own ground of being,
the always-present, subtle background
to the personal dramas exploding in the centre of one’s attention.
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You can’t do mindfulness,
but you can discover its inherent magic;
you can awaken to the immediacy and intimacy
of embracing fully all your experience,
whole and complete with no edges or boundaries.
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It is profoundly simple.
For it is always there, always who you already are.
But that degree of radical simplicity is challenging.
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The instruction is:
“Let everything be as it is,
at all times,
in all places,
under all circumstances.” *
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That is the challenge.
Can you take your hands off the steering wheel of your own life,
even briefly, to discover the living mystery that hides behind control?
That is why you cannot ‘do’ mindfulness,
you can no longer be in the driving seat to discover it.
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Give it a go!
Keep giving it a go.
Allow yourself to build up a momentum of ‘letting everything be’,
until that natural awareness becomes,
not only second nature
but first nature as well.
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*From the early teachings of A. Cohen