Remembered Words

Mindfulness is often misunderstood as being solely concerned with the present moment. It is also deeply connected to memory, as indicated by traditional terminology.

When we are mindful, we are able to ‘hold things in mind’. It is only the remembering of what we are attending to that enables us to maintain an unwavering attention towards it.

Consider how your mind might ‘drift off’ when doing something, such as meditating, reading or eating. At some point you realise that your mind has wandered. This is a moment of ‘recollection’ (literally meaning to ‘bring together’ or ‘find again’). You have become aware of what is actually happening and remembered what it is you that are supposed to be focussed on.

In one magical moment, you have stitched together your past, present and future into one secure and cohesive unity: directly seeing what has happened (past), bringing attention to immediate reality (present), and prospectively reminding yourself to focus again on what you’re supposed to be doing (future). This is mindfulness in action.

Modern psychological research has shown that attention comes in discrete moments. That is, we are only able to be attentive to something for the briefest time, after which we have to remind ourselves to keep on being attentive.

Mindfulness allows us to bypass the fogginess and forgetfulness our minds are prone to by weaving our attention into a seamless continuity over longer stretches of time. Stabilizing the attention in this way has profoundly clarifying effects.

A Peek at the Art

One morning recently, while meditating, I couldn’t help noticing a lingering sense that everything was fine. No matter what pulled on my attention – pangs of hunger, clouds of drowsiness, nonsensical thoughts, noisy builders next door – I seemed to receive it without resistance.

Even when my mind started troubling itself about its even-mindedness (“surely there must be something to brood on, or wind myself up about…?”), it didn’t fall for its own bait and continued abiding in a quiet, spacious contentment.

After the bell chimed to signal the end of the sit and I opened my eyes, everything continued to have its impeccable place in the scheme of things – from the sounds of the builders’ tools to a shard of sunlight on the wall and right down to that tea stain on the carpet. 

As all meditators know, it is often (usually?) not like that. But the fact that it can be says something of the capacity of mindful awareness to directly precipitate a flexible, receptive, heart-lifting relationship with the world. 

Such experiences have precious little to do with me. It happens when ‘I’ stop getting in the way. 

Mindfulness, like art, reveals life. Meditation is akin to gazing upon a work of art. There is nothing to ‘get’. Awareness is the achievement – if there is achievement at all. 

As meditators, we aim to situate ourselves in life’s unfolding art forms and allow them to express themselves. The same as artists, we affect and are affected by the creative process taking place. And, of course, we forget, get uptight, fall over, get lost, make a mess. Then we remember again. But mostly we forget. Well, at least I do. That’s why I’m writing this – to remind me.

Past Connections

If you are interested in clarifying and deepening your mindfulness practice, it can be useful to know something of the origin of this fascinating term.

The word ‘mindfulness’ is an English translation of the ancient Indian (Pali language) word sati, a noun closely related to the verb sarati, which means ‘remember’.

Sati can be understood in two related ways:

(i) as an aspect of memory, that is, of ‘calling to mind’ and ‘remembrance’, where such recollective activity facilitates greater awareness and sense of purpose for one cultivating awareness;

(ii) as awareness of the present moment, such that the manifesting of sati implies a ‘presence of mind’ that allows one to be awake to the present moment. Such ‘wakefulness’ in turn supports the recollective function of (i).

Clear Seeing

In this way, sati is an alert yet receptive awareness, which brings a quality of breadth to experience, and is thus an awareness of things in relation to things.

Therefore, not only does sati have the ability to notice what is occurring, it also brings a wider vision of mental objects in their relationship to other mental objects.

Additionally, it may be useful to know that, in classical Buddhist psychology, a clear distinction is made between mindfulness (sati), perception (sanna) and discriminative consciousness (vinnana). In this model, it is sanna that processes and labels sensory and mental objects, i.e. sanna identifies an object and ‘gives it a name’ by conceptualising it.

Discriminative consciousness (vinnana) is that which is aware of a sensory or mental object, and which discriminates between its basic aspects, which have been recognised by sanna.

But it is sati which brings an awareness not just to objects in their relationship, but one which is untainted by the subjective bias of there being an essential, unchanging ‘I’ that is doing the recognising and the knowing.

What’s Going On?

Right here, right now, is life.

The present moment is your one chance to be fully alive to your experience. This is the only point from which you can foster awareness of what is happening as it is happening. Everything else is history or fantasy – some form of mental construction of past or future.

Despite the ever-available present, it is easy to overlook. Take, er, right now. What exactly is going on? As you read these words, your experience is a visual consciousness of black squiggles on a white background and the spontaneous meaning-making produced by your mind as it interprets them.

Light is reflecting off these squiggles, invisibly impressing their image on the retinas of your eyes, generating signals to your brain, and precipitating reactions, such as thoughts and feelings.

Your experience is, therefore, constantly changing – it is different, in some immeasurable way, to how it was when you started reading this paragraph.

How is this experience coming about? The fact that you are reading these words (and the fact that I wrote them) is easily taken for granted. Yet both are conditioned by a multitude of factors.

For starters, there’s your entire life story, and everything that led up to you being right here, right now, reading this.

The same goes for me, up to the point when I wrote this sentence.

Could we ever have planned or predicted this momentary encounter between ‘you’ and ‘me’?

Hallo.

Happy New Year.

The M-Word

‘Mindfulness’ is a term rich in meaning. Specifically, it can refer to a mental quality, a psychological process or a set of meditative practices. More broadly, it can refer to a cultivation of the mind, an ethical orientation to life or an enquiry into the nature of phenomena.

One possible thread connecting different contemporary usages of the term is: the experience of a sustained, deliberate awareness of the presenting moment – what is actually happening now – that is imbued with an attitude of tenderness and acceptance.

Note there are two elements here. Deliberate awareness of the here-and-now suggests an alert and receptive attention – one that is stable, undistracted and clearly knowing. A tender, accepting attitude implies qualities of patience, non-discrimination and impartiality.

Combined in a dynamic harmony, these two elements foster a presence of mind that is as intimate as it is equanimous, and which is welcoming to whatever is arising, abiding and passing away in the presenting moment. Orientating oneself to ‘given experience’ in this way is to enter fully into the aliveness of the ever-changing now.

The Spaces Between Words

Recently I was listening to a talk about mindfulness by the veteran meditation teacher Christina Feldman. What really struck me was her remarking that she tends to come up with a new working definition for mindfulness every year.

This from a teacher of over 40 years duration –
one who has mentored the most senior mindfulness trainers from the psychology and psychotherapy professions. Her comment says something about how the kind of learning and understanding that comes through practice is never complete and is ever-evolving.

Another implication is that ‘mindfulness’ cannot adequately be confined to, or defined by, a set of words. We can never acquire a fully satisfactory conceptual understanding of it. Indeed, if and when we do pin down what we think we know what mindfulness is – perhaps into a neat and tidy phrase or two – then we run the risk of our practice ossifying.

Of course, there is no shortage of definitions of mindfulness to be found in knowledge sources, both ancient and modern. But mindfulness itself, as a quality of mind, cannot adequately be confined to, or defined by, language.

If you hanker for an exact definition, believing that you will then know the experience of mindfulness, then you’re in good company. It is the nature of the human mind to seek a definitive ‘take’ on something - anything, in fact. Just keep reading this blog for evidence of that!

Mindfulness, though, is best understood through direct experience. So when you notice your mind is on the hunt for conceptual understanding, that is a mindful moment. Everything else is just filler.

Reality Check

In our over-stimulated, highly spun and monetised world, it can be hard to know what’s for real. Whatever ‘mindfulness’ is supposed to be about, it’s not stimulation, spin and money. So how do we sort the wheat from the chaff?

Stress, busyness and distraction are unlikely to aid one’s efforts to seek out what’s nourishing and discard the husks. But mindfulness, if it prizes anything, prizes wise discernment and the importance of knowing for oneself. So try we must.

Paths have a tendency to get overgrown, to get clogged up with detritus and to lose their markings. Inner paths are no different. Knowing when your path is blocked is wisdom in action.

To skilfully engage with struggles and obstacles that you encounter is to learn something important – that they are friendly forces in disguise, indeed opportunities for learning and growth. Trusting this comes with practice.

No Obstructions

For me, the penny really dropped when an experienced meditation teacher told me that 95% of meditation practice is working with the so-called ‘hindrances’ of sensual desire, ill will, restlessness, dullness and drowsiness, and sceptical doubt. Up to that point, I’d thought it was just me.

Since then, I have come to appreciate that the human birthright is to encounter powerful psychological forces that disturb and obscure inner clarity. Encountering these forces is an indication that there is some form of mental grasping at work.

But it is also a sign that the mind is bringing to light an unskilful habit, which softens and releases through awareness, so such moments are an occasion to rejoice. Really!

‘First They Ignore You’

Until recently, it was barely conceivable that mindfulness would find any substantial role in western healthcare. In 2007, when I first started running MBCT courses, it was a niche endeavour.

In my city, which normally prides itself on being ‘ahead of the curve’, the only course providers were two small centres and a lone psychologist in the local NHS.

Within the psychotherapy world at the time, we professionals were considered rather dubious, strange even, to be advocating silent meditation practices for psychological wellbeing. Therapy is, after all, usually about talking – lots of talking.

But there we were, shamelessly encouraging clients and patients to quieten down and watch what shows up. As the old saying goes: “Don’t just do something, sit there.”

‘Then They Laugh At You’

Ten years later, it’s all change. The popularisation of mindfulness is a phenomenon. My city is now awash with mindfulness courses, instructors and practitioners. The lone psychologist may have retired but she left behind enough seeds for the local NHS to sprout its own mindfulness centre. The UK’s ‘mindfulness mega-trend’ continues its breathless pace. Here and beyond, the m-word is used for selling everything from colouring books and scented candles to being cool and looking good.

We have come so far that mindfulness is now the subject of parody, as exemplified by the hilarious Ladybird Book of Mindfulness and Modern Toss’s Mindlessness Colouring Book – much-needed splashes of comedy in a genre of few laughs. For me, these are reminders of how much has changed in 10 years. They’re also a useful prompt for not taking myself too seriously.