to be mindful, empty the mind

To be mindful

Empty the mind

Language is a funny thing. Words sometimes mean the opposite of what they sound like they should mean. And mindfulness is one of these. It’s a word used in Buddhism a lot – to be mindful. It means to be aware of the present moment: all the sensations coming from the outside or the inside, to be aware of them, and to be aware of the emotions and thoughts as they arise as well. But to be aware of them without being tangled up in them, without being carried away by them.

So this mindfulness is really the same as presence. It’s the presence of an awareness, but an awareness that is not involved in the story. And for this mindfulness to be strong, it is good if there are not so many thoughts in the mind. Thoughts can come and go without really disturbing this mindfulness but only if the awareness relates to those thoughts in the same way that it relates to all the other sensations – the sights and sounds and smells and tastes, the touch sensations, the bodily sensations – all this that is happening in the present moment. The awareness can be with all of this. And it can be with thoughts in the same way. But usually it is not so and then we lose this quality of mindfulness. We lose presence.

We can only lose presence in two ways really. One is when there is no awareness at all, when we are unconscious, asleep, in deep sleep perhaps; or if we are drugged and no awareness is possible. This is one way but the way we usually lose presence, lose mindfulness, is through thinking, through thinking and getting tangled up in thoughts, carried away by thoughts. We become the thoughts and those thoughts take us away from everything else that is here in the present moment. You must have seen this for yourself. You might be very present with someone, listening to what they are saying, or just sitting in silence with them, and then some thoughts come and you are engaged so much in the thoughts that you are no longer present with that other person.

So to cultivate mindfulness, we need to take our energy out of thoughts. Step back from those thoughts a little. Don’t give them energy. And with this, the gaps between thoughts can grow. There comes a silence in the thinking mind. And tasting this silence is, itself, so delicious that of course, it is natural, that we value the silence as much as the thoughts, or maybe even more. For thoughts can be rather tedious, often repetitive, and not really in touch with reality at all.

Most thoughts are like a daydream, a fantasy, taking us far away from what is real. And that’s why this unfolding spiritual process is sometimes called awakening. We are waking up from these dreams, these daydreams, these stories that we tell ourself. If we believe them then we are living in the life of dreams – a fantasy world. But if we don’t believe them, if we see thoughts and ideas popping into the mind as just that, thoughts with no particular reality to them, not carrying truth, if we relate to our thoughts in that way, they lose the power to take us away from our true self and from reality. And as they lose their power, they also become less persistent. We can enjoy more the empty spaces of the mind. And with that empty mind, we are mindful. We are naturally present with what is, when we are not thinking.

So to cultivate mindfulness, let us take the energy out of thoughts and treasure the gaps between thoughts more and more. Treasure that silence, with its stillness, its spaciousness, and all the gifts of mindfulness. The gifts are the gifts of life – to really hear the birds; to really feel the breeze on the cheek; to feel the warmth of the sun. To really feel these things, we need mindfulness. And this is where life is lived, in the reality of the moment, with all its juiciness and aliveness.

The simplest way to be mindful is to have a mind that is rather empty of thoughts.