Finding eternity in the present moment
I am finding mindfulness meditation to be useful for several reasons including:
1. It silences my ego
2. It interrupts and allows me to see my attachments that are at the root of my suffering
3. It is a pathway into the direct and unmediated experience of my true Self and the true nature of all things
4. It is often a source of great peace, serenity, and harmony.
Mindfulness is cultivated by a gentle effort, by effortless effort. You cultivate mindfulness by constantly reminding yourself in a gently way to maintain your awareness of whatever is happening right now. Mindfulness is cultivated by constantly pulling oneself back to a state of awareness, gently, gently, gently.
Mindfulness gives you the real perspective on yourself. It allows you to take that crucial mental step backward from your own desires and aversions so that you can then look and say, “Ah ha, so that’s how I really am.”
In a state of mindfulness, you see yourself exactly as you are. You see your own selfish behavior. You see your own suffering. And you see how you create that suffering. You see how you hurt others. You pierce right through the layer of lies that you normally tell yourself and you see what is really there. Mindfulness leads to wisdom.
Mindfulness is not trying to achieve anything. It is just looking. Therefore, desire and aversion are not involved. Competition and struggle for achievement have no place in the process. Mindfulness does not aim at anything. It just sees whatever is already there.
The benefits of mindfulness meditation are far-reaching. Mindfulness is fast becoming the recommended treatment for trauma. A FB friend posted a comment this morning, sharing that they have found WizeWell as a helpful tool for their interests in practicing mindfulness. You don’t have to be a Buddhist monk to incorporate mindfulness meditation in your life. We tend to think this only because Western spirituality tends to be more cerebral/external, and Eastern spirituality is more mystical/internal.
Jesus’ teachings had this mystical/internal dimension to them. Jesus described eternal life as knowing God. Eternal life is not something we gain after we die; it’s seeing the way things truly are in God at this very moment. Eternal life is the direct, unmediated, and spontaneous experience of the true nature of reality. There is no where else than here. The only gate is now. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing else to be. There’s no destination. It’s not something to aim for in the afterlife. It’s simply the quality of this present moment. Mindfulness meditation is a way of untethering yourself from your attachments in order to embrace the eternal life of each moment.
