Mindfulness strategies are showing up everywhere, for very good reason. They not only work, they give us a certain skill in working with ourselves. However, if we are using mindfulness strategies without continually developing our own mindful awareness, the full benefit and potential of meditation skills or mindfulness-based strategies will never be realized – and may even be set aside as a passing novelty. We may miss the greatest impact in our work, our personal lives and in our own continuous transformation.
At its foundation in insight meditation and the early Buddhist teachings, the subjective experience of mindfulness is a radically different approach to our usual ways of working in the world. With a meditative mind (a contemplative approach) our focus is on the context from which thought arises, contact with phenomenological world and the operations and qualities of our mind, rather than just the content. By learning to stay open and grounded in the immediate moment, in our own spacious and secure base, we can continuously, or at least repeatedly, open to what is true in the present moment.
With such clarity we can work artfully and more skillfully with the content of the mind, with human interactions, and life in general. We can live from our values, aware of events as they unfold, meeting change, and creating rather than waiting to solve problems. We can play our life and let work be more like dancing, singing, or playing music – using our training and talents, but letting appropriate skillful response unfold in the moment.
With this perspective of mindful awareness there is no end to the benefit we can be to other beings or to our culture, no bottom to the depths we can reach in wisdom, compassion – or simple satisfaction. We have the potential of participating in the creation of a world we want to live in.
____________
The unfolding of these deep potentialities is a life long adventure. I am happy to help open this path to you in your own processes. As well as retreats, courses, and dharma study, I provide two more personal professional services: small group work and individual coaching.