“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing to the future.” – Thich Nhat Hahn

If we can call this a series of steps to deepen and expand awareness, that are really sort of non-steps, this would be the next one. I talked about embracing a form of meditation as the first non-step, as a place to create inner space, and cultivate non-doing. Being mindful would be non-step 2.

There has been a literal ton written on mindfulness. The reason for this is that it is an actual tool. (Although the parameters of how to really grab hold of it still feels fuzzy. I imagine it’s because within mindfulness there is contained an underlying level of depth of awareness goes into what we’re doing in the moment. And how do we define that?) Like meditation, mindfulness is a practice. It’s almost like an opened eye meditation because we keep bringing our awareness back to the present moment and how we feel in it. Mindfulness cultivates a deeper level of awareness that we bring to each moment of our lives and puts us directly on the path to living in the present moment. This is about as concrete as it’s going to get. With mindfulness we live in the moment as it presents itself, we focus on what we’re doing, what we’re thinking or saying, our intentions, not on what may happen or what we plan on doing sometime later. We live fully in the moment of now. This, of course, is a pared down version. There are a many amazing books on mindfulness, I would start with Thich Nhat Hanh. His words are incredibly healing and grounding. But the essence of mindfulness is that we pay more attention moment to moment, to ourselves, to those around us, to our environment, to each moment as we live it.

Again we are practicing. We start to do it, we forget all about, maybe minutes later, or hours, we remember and we come back and start all over again. This is why I call mindfulness (and meditation) non-steps, or I guess you could say circular steps. It’s not a concrete thing we are trying to attain but a level of feeling, a depth of understanding we are trying to cultivate. This work never ends, we just keep practicing, and like anything else the more we practice the easier it becomes, it becomes more like second nature.

There is beauty and magic in the world, but if we aren’t mindful we miss it. Making it a habit to be in the present moment, noticing what is around you, how you feel, taking it all in, is real work. Just in a non-doing kind of way. It’s not like planting a garden, or washing the car. We don’t make a list and check things off as we go. It just doesn’t work that way. This work is not linear, it’s a spiral, and we are always coming around again.

T.S. Eliot had it right when he said, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” This is how it goes, we start, we work, we come around again to where we began, but now we have more experience, understanding, awareness. And this is how we non-do to get to a non-goal, like joy, peace, fulfillment, or contentment. Ironically, it’s the most significant thing we can do, deepen our understanding of our self and the world. When we’re mindful we notice the smallest details and it has the effect of enlarging our awareness, an awareness that could fathom the universe. The down to earth gift is that we are a more integral part of life, not just a bystander. You see why it’s so difficult to talk about the mystery, there are no words for it, only words that point us to it.

Hopefully having a couple of tools which deepen experience, and give a glimpse of the peace and wholeness on the other side of this work, gives us something tangible to hang on to when our attention starts to wane, or our energy starts to sag. These are the tools that can enlarge our life.

Here’s to the never ending journey of becoming.

kb