Mindfulness is a state (and lifestyle) that many are now seeking. They look for it in meditation or in inner work, in practices and ashrams...
And sometimes someone says: “Now I am aware”.
Test yourself for awareness
(suddenly you decided that you have already reached the heights of “here and now”)
- The first sign of a conscious person is his body.
The body of a conscious person is relaxed and at the same time straightened. The fingers don’t fiddle with anything, the legs don’t twitch with small tremors, the hands don’t straighten clothes or hair every 2 minutes.
A conscious person knows how to be present in the body. If such a person sits, then he sits. Without unnecessary fuss in the body. He knows how to feel the body and control his body.
This is the first and a basic level of person. If he is not able to “agree” with the body, then it is even more subtle worlds he has nothing to do at all!
- A conscious person knows how to cope with negative emotions.
He does not suppress them or manifest them. He transforms them - he completely controls his state and his reactions. He is the master of his emotions and his states.
Thus, a conscious person does not waste energy in vain, and does not spoil “karma” either for himself or for others.
- A conscious person is aware of his verbal center.
A conscious person does not say more than is really necessary. Words either convey valuable information, or they are words that can raise energy level another: kind, beautiful, true :).
Ordinary people speak often in order not to feel lonely; raise your importance; underestimate the importance of others, and most often tell lies. In this case, a lie is everything that is said about others. After all, we usually see others only from one side and cannot be objective, which means we lie.
Any information at the level of speculation, rumors, something that actually does not exist, is of no value to a conscious person.
- Conscious person respects yourself and those around you.
He doesn’t argue with anyone, doesn’t condemn anyone, doesn’t make any claims. He understands that this is a waste of energy, effort and time.
After all, if as a result of increased internal work the energy returns, then as a result of disputes and clarifications of relationships it is lost forever.
A conscious person understands and accepts the limitations of each person. He knows that if they did something “bad” to him, then he somehow deserved it or provoked it.
- A conscious person is in the moment.
He knows how to manage himself and his energy, physical, and intellectual centers.
When he has an exam, he can concentrate and answer questions clearly. When he is with his beloved, he is able to surrender to his feelings.
For an ordinary person, the opposite is true: in a difficult situation on the road, he suddenly confuses “right” and “left” and presses on the gas instead of the brake, because the emotional center turned on at the wrong time.
In the arms of his beloved, he thinks about the situation at work...
- A conscious person should human nature (spiritual), not an animal.
Aware of his human nature, he understands that he is not in this life to dominate and suppress. But for the sake of creation and development.
A conscious person does not give up life in the material world, he lives, develops, achieves, but not for the sake of achievement, but for the sake of high goals.
He has no problems with money (that is, he has money). Because money is an opportunity to implement and realize your goals.
- A conscious person knows where is he going and why?.
He knows his purpose and consciously realizes it. He is aware of his role in this life, his contribution to it.
A conscious person takes responsibility for all his states, words, deeds, actions and choices.
Be aware!
PS How do you develop your awareness? Share in the comments below. 🙂
Awareness as a personality quality is the ability, while awake, to be vigilantly present here and now, to perceive, feel and be aware of events, objects and sensory attitudes.
In the life of the Buddha, when he was still a simple seeker, a remarkable incident occurred. Together with a fellow traveler, he passed through some village. The two were engaged in an animated conversation when a fly landed on the Buddha's neck. Buddha raised his hand and waved away the fly. The fly flew away, but Buddha suddenly stopped. “I made a grave mistake,” he said. Then he repeated the gesture of driving away the fly. The friend exclaimed: “What are you doing?” The fly has already flown away. Buddha replied: “Now I drive away the fly as I should.” Now I am fully aware of what I am doing. Now, when I raised my hand, I was fully aware that the hand was rising and moving towards the neck to ward off the fly. Then I got too carried away in the conversation; my movement was automatic. I have committed a sin towards the body.
Buddha was once asked, “What makes a person holy?” He replied: “Every hour is divided into a certain number of seconds, and every second is divided into a certain number of shares. He who is able to be completely present in every fraction of a second is a saint.” When Buddha became enlightened, he exclaimed: “This is incredible!” This means that I was enlightened from the very beginning, and all these chains and shackles were just a dream! Subsequently, when people asked him: “What should we do to get rid of vices?”, the Buddha invariably answered: “Be aware, bring awareness into your life.” Listening to him, Ananda, one of his students, asked: “People come to you with different problems, but you have one recipe for all “illnesses.” For example, one person asks: “How to get rid of anger?”, you answer him: “Be aware!” Another asks: “How to get rid of greed?”, you answer him: “Be aware!” The third one asks: “How to get rid of gluttony?” You also advise him: “Be mindful.” How to understand this? The Buddha replied: “Their illnesses differ from each other, just as the dreams that different people have differ.” But if they all come to me and ask, I will tell them: “Begin to be aware! Awake!"
Do you realize that the universe only takes into account your conscious desires, intentions and goals? Awareness – necessary condition for their implementation. Is it possible to take seriously the wishes of a person who is sleeping? Man, as a set of habits, sometimes thinks and acts mechanically, and is a kind of universal robot. Although, if you interview most people, they will be convinced that they live consciously. They will even be indignant that they are suspected of being unaware, like any tree or stone. Many people understand abnormal behavior by unconsciousness; their ideas about awareness could easily fit on a business card. In aviation, there is a common concept of spatial disorientation, when on an airplane you lose your sense of connection with the ground and have absolutely no idea where you are. Many people spend their entire lives in a state of spatial disorientation and moral uncertainty.
To understand the essence of the state of awareness with our minds, let's turn on our imagination. The “good” fairy with one wave of her magic wand deprived us of our memory of the past. We remain the same: with our own character, feelings and emotions, but all we have left is the current moment. The fairy also made sure that our thoughts did not run into the future. Now our brain is not able to think ahead and overtake the present. For us there is only the awareness of I AM here and now, outside the past and future.
At first glance, it may seem that all the charm of life has been amputated from us, our dreams have been taken away, and we have been deprived of sweet walks through the back streets of the past. Let's see, maybe this is just an appearance? Any seemingly sad and desperate situation, which cannot be changed, must be taken as a given, and then substitute the word “but” to it and list what we have won or gained from the intricate games of the good fairy.
Mindfulness and Negative Emotions
A big benefit of mindfulness is elimination of all negative emotions. Like a flamethrower, awareness burns out of us resentment, anger, hatred, hostility. In a word, the branchy tree of our negative emotions, on which there are over fifty branches, burns to the ground. It’s even hard to believe in such happiness: anxiety, depression, stress and fears disappear from our lives. In an unconscious state, we become slaves to emotions. They control us at their discretion, depriving us of conscious choice. We have all had to deal with the situation when a person says that I am fine, that he is calm, while his body language and gestures give clear signals that he has “lost his temper.” On the contrary, in a conscious state we cannot be a provider of negative emotions. To be offended, to hate, to be angry with someone, you need past experience, and we are deprived of this. And it’s as pointless to be offended by us as by the sun and the wind. In a conscious state, we are the personification of sincerity, independence and goodwill. What's the point of being offended by a truly sincere person? They get offended and show dissatisfaction when another positions himself as an open and sincere person, and his behavior shows the opposite. When we see and understand with our souls that we have a truly sincere person in front of us, it is impossible to be offended by him.
Mindfulness and mind chatter.
On average, about sixty thousand thoughts flash through our minds per day, ninety-five percent of which are no different from yesterday. This is simply an insult to reason. At the same time, thoughts colored by negativity predominate. Under the influence of bad mental habits, people become fixated on the problems of the past, digesting their financial failures and personal troubles hundreds of times. Many people burden themselves with bleak childhood memories, when they were teased and humiliated by classmates, and bullied by teachers and parents. Others recall with anxiety and irritation a conversation with the boss and a conflict in the store. The abundance of such thoughts filled with anxiety destroys us. We don't want to understand that mind control is the quintessence of life control. In an unconscious state of mind, when thoughts flutter freely, we have no time to enjoy the world around us. The trouble is that we often take our mental chatter at face value, identify with it and turn a momentary thought into reality and then play it out in virtual practice. In fact, most of our thoughts behave as unpredictable as gases. There is no need to take them seriously, identify with them or expend your energy on them. If we bring awareness to the mind by observing our thoughts from moment to moment, its chatter will slow down or stop altogether. Through mindfulness we gain a deep sense of peace. Thinking works with a different intensity. It easily distinguishes the true from the false, clouded negative emotions or based on pure speculation. We will not jump from one thought to another and will learn to think deeply and consistently.
Awareness and people.
There is a clear lack of awareness in our relationships with other people. Our positive feelings and emotions released to others can be compared in their completeness to blockade rations. Harsh reality megacities prevent us from seeing in another person a separate, unique world filled with thoughts and feelings. Apart from our loved ones, we often look at other people mechanically, from the perspective of what they can do and not do. We are preoccupied with our problems, our importance, and we don’t care about others. We are not interested in them. Mindfulness, as an alert, observant presence here and now, allows us to change our relationships with people for the better. We will consciously be able to see their faces, their eyes, their body language. By paying conscious attention to people, we see them as whole human beings. When people see sincere attention to themselves, it caresses their own importance. Your attention will be rewarded as it deserves: you will be considered a charming person, your interaction with other people will become qualitatively different.
You can list and describe the advantages of mindfulness endlessly. It doesn’t take long to convince of its extraordinary usefulness. By the way, about beliefs. Our beliefs completely determine our vision of the world. Having realized our erroneous beliefs that prevent us from truly perceiving our external and internal worlds, we can consciously replace them with new beliefs. This quality of awareness allows us to realize personal growth, purposefully move towards the realization of your goals.
In general, what a great pleasure it is to communicate with a person who, when talking to us, is not soaring somewhere in the clouds, but is in the present. To bring him back to reality, there is no need to ask: “Where are you now?” We know that a conscious person perceives everything we say, understands where we are and what is happening around. It's a pleasure to communicate with such a person.
Thus, mindfulness is an alert presence in the here and now. The vigilance of mindfulness is that our attention does not wander into, cling to, or become stuck in the past or future. Mindfulness is when we can honestly say, “I am all attention and hearing,” freeing ourselves from the restless ego. Our ego does not like to live “here and now”; it always needs to wander somewhere – either in the past or in the future.
Someone asked Bokuju: “What are you doing?” What is your religious practice? He replied: “I live.” ordinary life- this is my practice. When I feel hungry, I eat. When I feel like I want to sleep, I sleep. The questioner was puzzled. He said: “But I don’t see anything special in it.” Bokuju said, “That’s the whole point.” There's nothing special. Everyone who craves something special is selfish. The questioner was still puzzled. He said: “But everyone does it.” When they are hungry they eat, when they want to sleep they sleep. Bokuju laughed and said, “No.” When you eat, you do a thousand and one things: you think, you dream, you imagine, you remember. You don't just eat. When I eat, I simply eat: then there is only food and nothing else. When you sleep, you dream. When I sleep, I just sleep, nothing else exists. When there is a dream, there is only a dream. Not even Bokuju. When I walk, there is only a walk, there is no Bokuju, just a walk.
Awareness is achieved primarily through observation. Observe your thoughts, putting them under constant control. One of my friends always carried a toothpick with him. As soon as bad things came into his head, negative thought, he lightly pricked his palm with a toothpick. He says that after a couple of months he no longer needed the toothpick.
Watch your every action and deed. Whatever you do, be aware that you are doing it. I eat - I become aware of myself. I walk - I become aware of myself. I listen - I become aware of myself. Observe body language: gestures and facial expressions. While chewing your food, experience the pleasure of eating. Don't swallow food like a crocodile. In a word, learn to observe your body, desires and emotions, and, finally, thoughts.
Measure your life in moments and live it moment by moment. Try to always be present in everything that happens to you. What a shame it will be when a miracle comes to you, and you, as always, will be everywhere and everywhere, and not here and now. Don't let the past and future take your power from the present. Focus your attention on the charm of each moment.
Peter Kovalev
THE ESSENCE OF THE PROBLEM:
What does it mean to be mindful?
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ANSWER:
Awareness is a quality not only of your consciousness, it is a quality of existence as such... Man, unlike animals, has consciousness - due to the fact that the instinctive principle in humans manifests itself to a much lesser extent than in animals. However, a person pays a certain price for the possession of consciousness - the human cub is the most defenseless in this world and it needs time to learn what other species, thanks to instincts, can do from birth...
Instincts are genetic programs embedded in Living being nature. Thanks to them, this creature is well oriented in the world, knows what and how it needs to do. In humans, instincts are less developed, and their functions are taken over by his trained mind (consciousness) with its social or individual programs. With the help of these programs, a person is guided in his daily interaction with the outside world...
Awareness in relation to consciousness occupies approximately the same position as consciousness (mind) in relation to instincts. With awareness, a person no longer needs programs to interact with the world around him. A person ceases to be the one who is controlled and becomes the one who controls. Who is behind instincts, social and individual programs.
The difference between a “conscious person” and a “reasonable person” :):
1. A “conscious person” is here-and-now.
Life as a process of interaction is possible only in the current moment and the fullness of life is determined solely by whether a person is immersed in a trance state (experiencing the events of the past or planning and modeling his future - a “reasonable person” spends 95% of his time doing this activity) or whether he is in in the present moment - “there is only a moment, between the past and the future, it is called life”...
2. A “conscious person” is free from internal dialogue"Homo sapiens"
Internal dialogue is generally a separate topic for a long article... In short, this is what “homo sapiens” is manifested by, namely expressed internal interaction (tracking how social or individual programs). The human mind is dual in nature, and conducting internal dialogue, argument, conflict within oneself is a common activity for “a reasonable person.” Thoughts dominate us, weaving black nets...
Many will immediately ask, what does a “conscious person” have instead of internal dialogue? What fills the inner emptiness? What is he thinking about and does he think at all?
The answer is - are you currently busy secreting enzymes in your liver? This is how a “conscious person” is free from highlighting the thoughts of his mind. Of course, he thinks, and also has goals, performs analysis and many other reasonable things... But he is not immersed in this process like a “reasonable person.” Try not to think for 5 minutes... Mindfulness allows you to do this.
3. “Conscious Homo” does not have the emotional chaos of “Homo sapiens.”
Mindfulness is not a principle, not a belief, not a dogma. First of all, this is a feeling, this is a feeling. Those who have experienced it compare this feeling with love, while others are sure that this is love... Moreover, this is the basic feeling on the basis of which all the mental activity of a “conscious person” unfolds.
Many will immediately ask, “how do we get to this, how to experience this feeling”? The paradox is that each of the “reasonable people” already has this feeling. It's already inside you. Even without having a mind - in deep childhood, each of us lived with this feeling and the intuitive memory of it helps those seeking awareness.
How to come to awareness? The answer is simple, and at the same time very complex: it is necessary to realize the strongest (basic) instinct - the genetic program: the instinct of property. NOT PROPERTY, but the instinct of ownership. Please do not confuse these concepts. There is a huge difference between “having property” and “being an owner.” The presence of property does not mean anything - what matters is the attitude towards it. As long as you have property, you are a “reasonable person,” but when you start to “have property,” you are on the path to awareness :)...
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In this article we will talk about what mindfulness is. It is important not only to understand what mindfulness is, but also to live mindfully.
Mindfulness is the key to all doors
From the great teachers of the past such as Jesus, Kabir, Nanak, Buddha, Muhammad, to modern teachers such as Karl Renz, Ethart Tolle, Dalai Lama, Osho, we can say that all these teachers taught only one thing - mindfulness.
Each teacher called mindfulness differently. Jesus called it awakening, so he said more than once: stay awake, be alert, but people did not understand him, they thought that being awake meant not sleeping in bed, but they did not understand that even if they were not in bed, it was not means they are awake. You can sleep on the go.
Ethart Tolle called mindfulness presence, or the power of the now.
Osho called mindfulness witnessing. Whatever you call it, the essence does not change.
Awareness is a person’s ability to be here and now, to feel the world more than to think about it, the ability not to be fooled by the illusions of the mind. Understand that thoughts are just thoughts and the thoughts in your head have nothing to do with real reality.
Awareness is the understanding that thoughts are illusory and they carry only a shadow of the past or future, and the real reality is where the human body is, that is, the real reality surrounds the body here and now.
Mindfulness helps you see your inner world
Thanks to awareness, a person begins to get acquainted with his inner world, before which there was only external world, the inner dimension is now opening.
A person who becomes less and less reactive. It is more difficult to control him, he no longer reacts to the same stimuli in the same way, he has the opportunity to freely choose how to react to a particular stimulus. Such a person becomes more and more spontaneous and unpredictable.
Let’s say that if an unconscious person is shouted at, then, depending on his habit, he can either shout back or, fearing shouts, avoid conflicts. An unconscious person always reacts, for example, to shouts in the same way, but a conscious person can choose whether to shout, that is, go into conflict, or avoid conflict, and this depends on the situation. A conscious person increases the effectiveness of communicating with people and increases resistance to stress.
It is important to understand that there are three main aspects inner world for awareness:
- body;
- soul.
Body awareness
The very initial stage of awareness begins with the body. At this stage, a person learns to feel his body, be able to direct his consciousness into the body, feel how energy flows in the body. Listening skill emerges internal organs, heartbeat, etc.
A person begins to better care and love himself, that is, his body. At first, it is difficult for a person to meditate on the body, thoughts are often carried away, a person constantly jumps from awareness to unconsciousness, and often falls asleep during meditation.
Over time, a new level appears when a person realizes that he does not fall asleep, thoughts still come to his head, but do not carry him away, and consciousness remains in the body more and more often and longer. Then a person begins to direct consciousness into the body already on the street, wherever he is, when communicating with people.
The hardest thing, perhaps, is to be aware of your body, move and talk at the same time.
Thought Awareness
Awareness of thoughts or observation of them is, perhaps, the second level of awareness - this is when a person already sees his thoughts and understands that thoughts are thoughts and they have nothing to do with reality.
A person can even laugh at the thoughts that come to his mind, since he has the understanding that he is not a thought and that thoughts often come from the outside, and are not always born in his head.
Life is not as serious as the mind makes it out to be!!!
A person who is aware of his thoughts lives by this principle. Such a person does not get lost in his thoughts, does not follow them, this person is already the master of his mind and does not allow thoughts to lead him into illusions, but consciously directs his attention to the moment now that surrounds his body.
Soul Awareness
Soul awareness is the third level, and can only be mastered after the first two stages of awareness have been completed.
In fact, all three stages of awareness of the three aspects of a person - body, mind, and soul - are very interconnected and complement each other, and they were separated for better understanding and assimilation of the material.
Awareness of the soul occurs due to the awareness of emotions and feelings, moods; at this stage, a person can clearly distinguish emotions from feelings and be aware of his mood and manage it.
Emotions come after thoughts, no matter what thoughts they are, positive or negative.
And feelings come from the soul, not from thoughts. Thoughts can come to mind after feelings, that is, emotions are a consequence of thoughts, and feelings are always their source.
Feelings are on a deeper level and most often come from the chest. And emotions are felt in the abdominal area, but this should not be taken as truth, all this is individual.
It is important to understand that this article on mindfulness is not awareness - it is just a direction towards it, but if you are reading it, then you are closer to awareness or awakening than ever before.
Awareness is directed towards awareness or perception
This is the fourth stage, which already happens to a person on his own, after he has already gone through the three previous stages. At this stage, awareness is directed to perception, the person already asks himself the question, who perceives all this, who I am, at this stage the person remembers Who He Really Is.
Conclusions on the topic of what mindfulness is:
- mindfulness helps a person to finally discover the inner dimension in addition to the external world;
- awareness gives a person freedom of choice, the ability to react the way a person chooses to a particular stimulus;
- awareness occurs in three stages: awareness of the body, mind and soul, all these stages are interconnected and complement each other;
- awareness in different times different people has been called variously: awakening, witnessing, presence, being here and now, awake, alert, and so on; all these words have the same essence - a person rises to new stage evolutionary spiritual growth.
The consequence of a conscious lifestyle is unconditional love, joy, a more fulfilling and vibrant life.
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