Neat little trick/mantra for mindfulness

[Ginsan]

I realized yesterday, that, if you are aware of being distracted, you are not distracted anymore, you are aware. That's it that's the trick. This way of seeing mindfulness suddenly made it come super easy to me. I notice how distracted I am and how hard it is for my mind not to wander and be chaotic, and by noticing this I become mindful, because noticing it is the definition of being mindful. I am mindful for much longer at a time and more frequently just by realizing mindfulness can be as easy as noticing my previous unmindfulness, and I don't understand why it is so effective. I'll think about this a little more over the following days, but I just wanted to share this for now. Tell me what you think and maybe try it out

[Patience108]

Yes true ~ getting this point helps a lot with making the whole process friendly - more effortless feeling No stress etc... Still work to be done but with a friendly discipline

[Lichi]

A couple of years ago, before i started learning about meditation, i was interested in the concept of attention and i came up with a similar idea which is: "it is of importance paying attention to what you are paying attention". In other words paying attention to what your mind is doing in its passive mode. This came from my thoughts so it might be no so accurate... but the idea was similar. Now i have a basic knowledge of the concepts of mindfulness and awareness, and i recognize that this is what is important. Being mindful of what you are being mindful of.* I shared this idea with my sister 2 years ago, and she ridiculed me, like i was trying to make some mathematic concept out of attention, like the 2nd potency of attention or something like that. I was not trying to... the idea made sense on its own, but alright... i then kept it to myself. A year later i started hearing dhamma talks and i heard ideas like these many times: "pay attention to what you are paying attention (i think)", "mind seeing mind" (Bhikkhu Samahita), "mindful of mindfulness" (Thanissaro Bhikkhu). So yes it is true, useful, important and very effective. Just this morning i heard a short dhamma talk of that topic. I think it's useful to share it so here it goes: Mindful of Mindfulness * One can be mindful of what is the mind is doing: if it is ignorant, if it is averse, if it is with desire or the contrary, if it is without those qualities. This is actually one foundation of mindfulness. You can check the Satipatthana Sutta for the four foundations of mindfulness.

[FryingMan]

Be aware of your awareness! Yes, noticing the zoned out mode is a moment of lucidity! It's an easy way to get started, I like to tell people just start realizing when you've not been paying attention. Like when you finish watching a movie on your computer and your self-awareness returns and you find yourself sitting in front of the screen in your room, realizing you've been far away for a while.

[Ginsan]

Hey Lichi! I also listen to "talks about Buddhism and meditation by an expert meditator" (so I guess those are called Dhamma talks?) occasionally and find them super valuable and insightful, but only by 1 person: Joseph Goldstein. That's because he makes a lot of sense and is clear and concrete in his speech and I think that is hard to find in an area so close to spirituality, where people tend to ramble and say things that are illogical or beside the point or just ramble-y. But I'll check out your link. (I kinda want to eat some potato chips and relax because I'm tired from school) Pretty cool that you discovered on your own pretty much the essence of Buddhism! And yeah what you say makes perfect sense. We are very often unaware about what goes on in our consciousness and if we only look at what is going on with our thoughts, intentions, how we respond to events, we can find so many things that bring needless harm to ourselves and to others, ways in which we waste energy. We can even overlook beautiful things like kindness and compassion in other people because we are too caught up in thinking about what they might think of us or what we should say or whatever happens to be on our mind and we just forget to notice "wow she is such a nice and warm person". But 1 thing: "mindful of mindfulness" can also be interpreted as meta-mindfulness. So usually we practice mindfulness: "to be aware of our thoughts/feelings/sensations," but mindfulness of THAT sounds like "to be aware of our mind when we are being aware of our thoughts." And I do this sometimes; I observe sights/sounds/sensations, but while doing that I watch what it feels like to be watching/observing myself/being mindful. And it sounds strange or abstract maybe, but it is quite straightforward. So... Do you meditate often? I do a half-assed-mostly-distracted session every day on the train and bus to school and sometimes at home but it is quite superficial at the moment But even then the impact is huge.

[Lichi]

Yes those are Dhamma (or Dharma) talks. I heard about him many times before but i still haven't listened to one of his talks or read one his books. I think he takes a Vipassana Aproach (insight) and although i like this a lot, i think i need first to learn vipassana along with tranquility (samatha). Then once tranquility is well established vipassana would be a lot easier. I will definitely hear one of his talks in the near future. I meditate every day and i try to do at least one hour every day, but most days i do more. There are rare occasions in which there are days i don't meditate. But on average i would say i meditate 340/365 days. This has been for 2 years now. I started radically however, one day i thought "meditation should be top priority in life" and i worked since that day to make it top priority. For this i received a lot of complaints from my family that i changed drastically, but ... well i had to do it, and had to do it that way. However i don't know how effective it was in terms of learning meditation. I think that approaching meditation as a gradual process is the best way to go. Try perhaps 15 minutes at first, and start progressing adding 5 minutes when one feels confortable. And keep watch of mindfulness in daily activities is the informal part of meditation (which is more or less like ADA method for lucid dreaming. And self awareness can be practiced too). This month i started thinking about this "mindfulness of mindfulness" meditation again (because i saw that title on the Dhamma Talks of last month) and im starting practicing again, in informal meditation and in formal meditation. It is very effective, and one could think it's a shallow practice but it's actually very powerful and leads to great results. So don't feel discouraged, it's a good practice, and it will give its results.