questioning if it works.

[Gareth]

Fantastic post Jakz! Welcome.

[Peter]

Welcome Jakz!

Probably the best first post ever

I agree with it all. The only thing that I'm skeptical about is this: "With the benefit that in striving to be mindful all the time there's no need to find 'time' to practice!"

Cheers,

Peter

[JonW]

"In my opinion, mindfulness is a skill that can be practiced every waking moment. It stops becoming a ' doing ' and is more of a way of 'being'. ( With the benefit that in striving to be mindful all the time there's no need to find 'time' to practice!)"
This is an interesting paragraph. Mindfulness, with practice, does become a way of being. But I think we need to be careful not to strive to be mindful 24/7. It's a far more subtle process than that. As much as anything, mindfulness involves being attentive towards our inattentiveness. So we might be walking down the street on a sunny day and notice that, for the past 10 minutes, we've been so busy ruminating on the past or speculating about the future that we haven't noticed the beautiful weather etc. Rather than chide ourselves for being wrapped up in our thoughts, we might congratulate ourselves for noticing that we have been. The mindfulness is all in that noticing. That's awareness.
Jon

[Peter]

My thoughts exactly, Jon. And I think it is important to dedicate time for mindfulness. Maybe when one is enlightened it might be a different story.

Peter

[JonW]

"And I think it is important to dedicate time for mindfulness."

It's absolutely imperative, in my view.
As for enlightenment, I'd argue that there are no enlightened people, only moments of enlightenment. But that's another story...

[Jakz]

Thanks for the warm welcome , and for the constructive comments . . .
When we stop striving , the flow just happens; to begin with , when we learn anything new, there is a discipline required ( I remember learning to drive, learning to co-ordinate 2 hands, 2 feet , and respond safely to everything going on on a busy road... Oh! the anxiety... how will I ever 'get' this and not be a public health hazard ? ) but with practice we realise one day that we are 'in the flow' of driving.
Mindfulness meditation is the same.
One day we realise that the state we once identified as 'being mindful' has become our default mind state, and when our mind isn't involved in planning or organising, or any other practical application of mind, we notice that being in the moment is our natural home. We find that we are naturally in the flow, responding to life as it happens.

[JonW]

"One day we realise that the state we once identified as 'being mindful' has become our default mind state, and when our mind isn't involved in planning or organising, or any other practical application of mind, we notice that being in the moment is our natural home."

Beautiful put. I couldn't agree more.
The potential danger, of course, when being mindful becomes the default setting, is that we convince ourselves that we no longer need to keep up a daily formal practice. At which point it all starts to unravel...
Jon, Hove

[Gareth]

But does it unravel though? I would love to see some testimony on this point in the form of a blog or something.

At times, my practice feels impregnable, like I could never forget the things that I have learned. There is a huge amount of informal practice in my day, aided by spending time with the boys, who are so naturally mindful. Whenever there is a spare few minutes in the day, I start focusing on the sounds around me...or I watch the the thoughts drifting through my mind...or I intently listen to whatever tune I have playing.

I still meditate every day of course. Why wouldn't I?

[Peter]

I feel like it would unravel for me if I didn't dedicate time to mindfulness.

I feel that I get a much firmer grounding when I 'formally' meditate. I also feel like it gives me time and space to really explore with my awareness.

When I 'informally' use mindfulness throughout the day, the activity is mostly at stage center, and I'm witness to it. But when I 'formally' meditate, my awareness is at stage center, and it can roam freely.

Hope that made sense

Peter

[Jakz]

Surely the point of mindfulness as a formal practice is to train our mind to be fully present and 'in the moment' every moment ? To this end we can practice being mindful whatever we are doing.

One of my greatest opportunities for practicing mindfulness was when I worked for 3 years on a mine site. Imagine being in a remote location in the middle of the Australian desert. This was a 'fly in, fly out' job on a 7 day on 7 day off roster, living on site and doing 12 hour shifts from 3:45 - 3:45, with alternate weeks of day shift and night shift. I did it in order to earn the money to finance my sons apprenticeship.

The work was dirty, boring, hot, uncomfortable and repetitive, and the hours long.
Many people asked "How can you do that work?" or "You're an intelligent person, why do you do such a 'menial' job?"
My response was always the same:- "I can do it because it gives me the opportunity to practice mindfulness for 12 hours a day, every day." (and get paid well as a bonus!)

Sitting down to meditate may be an important part of our day, but sitting is only one form of practice.

If we enjoy our sitting practice and find it valuable (and who doesn't ) why not extend that enjoyable, peaceful experience into everyday life?

The peace and calm that we feel is due to our brain wave patterns, and the truth is , we don't have to restrict our experience of this to a period of formal sitting. _/I\_