What exactly is mindfulness anyway? Living in the moment

[Celtaur]

I was thinking about this because of another thread about a scenario living in the moment.

What is mindfulness? Do we miss out on things in life because we aren't being mindful?

The thought came to me as I watched my dog completely focused on my food. As someone else tried to get his attention and play with him, he was fixated on the potential for getting a bit to eat. As someone played with him, picked him up, lightly tussled with him, etc., the dog was acting as if he would be thinking, "Yah, yah, yah, ok, enough of that I just want this food!" as he stared at my plate and licked his lips.

So if the dog, was so fixated on my food, is he missing out on other things around him? Is he being mindful?

My question is... is being mindful, single pointed attention, or is it more like attention akin to peripheral vision? Must you be aware of everything around you to be "present"? Is being fixated on one area of attention being mindless if you aren't paying attention to everything that is going on around you?

Is paying attention to one main thing like getting caught up in your narrow scope of thoughts instead of absorbing everything?

Do we miss out on other things, when being mindfully attentive, absorbed into one area?

[brifae]

awareness of self and others, compassion, being in the zero point of now love and trust, yet also balancing the practical is a mindful way of the jedi

[nventr]

awareness of self and others, compassion, being in the zero point of now love and trust, yet also balancing the practical is a mindful way of the jedi

I agree with Brifae it is a delicate balance.

My take is that it is a balance between the personal and the universal. We must pay attention to the matter at hand, but it is also important to keep the overall picture or world view in mind. This is symbolized by "The point within the circle." When the point is centered, all is in balance. When the point is off kilter, then egotistical point of view is involved. When there is no point at all, all is a scattered chaos or you are spending your life putting out fires.

Example: Dubai. They are focused on creating the most astounding architecture and new land masses to attract tourists to their country. However, I truly wonder if this is practical. The man-made islands of the palm trees and the world map will not last unless man continually maintains them. So, like the first kingdom of Egyptian pharaohs, they will stress their workforce to build and maintain an outer symbol of power and achievement. Yet, what kind of long term environmental effects are they creating? They have admitted that they have changed the currents that flow through and around their coastal waters. IMO, they are like the dog in the previous post. They have the point, but don't have the circle.

[Tlove]

It is learning to be aware of all around you... have love for everything and take a moment to be grateful for exactly where you are. Ego causes us to be caught up in our self,, in our heads ... when we do that we miss out on so much around us.
Yesterday is over and tomorrow has not happened so just enjoy "now" and be blissful.

[FreeSpirit525]

For me it is realizing that every point is the center, and you are only missing out as much as you imagine you are.

[jongeorg]

I believe there is no answer to that question. There are good pointers that lead you to experiencing what mindfulness means. I recommend Jon Kabat Zinn's book 'Coming To Our Senses' that is specifically about mindfulness. But the fact that this book is about 600 pages, I think it's obvious that your question is not a simple one

[FreeSpirit525]

Yes jongeorg I agree with you, I think mindfulness can be pointed toward with words but ultimately is incomprehensible. For me it also involves the degree to which I am allowing myself to directly experience my reality without mucking it up with over analyzing, thinking and other such trappings of the conditioned "unnatural" mind.

[jongeorg]

FreeSpirit, what you have written is as close to the "answer" as words can get

[wildflowr]

I believe that there are an infinite things in the universe to potentially be focused upon. And so many would be beneficial for us to focus upon. However when it comes down to it I believe the simplest desire of what we want is what will really fulfill us. There may be a million things directly around you that you would like to do, but you cannot do all of them at the same time...this phenomenon could be related to ADD, they seem to have a gift to know exactly where they want to be at the moment, to see what feels good to them while being able to discard what doesn't feel so good. And so they give them medicine and their brains believe it is ok to focus on mundane but perhaps important things again.
So like if we do just what we want to do, it doesn't have to be the happiest thing, it can just be fulfilling in some way- such as work.

I don't think we miss out on other things while focused in one area. The universe is like a riddle, it goes on and on. In that one focused area you are in, there is so much stimuli that is attributed with it and they are all those little factors making up the project are different in their own way.

I would say that the dog's focus on food was just his world right then. It was probably like a happy zone. I think that ultimately in the dream world and such, such actions are respected just a little bit more. But on earth there is work, and we must get things done. So usually a propper way is better because it is more efficient. So I believe it would have been more efficient for the dog to be playing while you were eating. Either way is correct it's just up to prefferences.

And as a human we can decide what the meaning of a moment is. Perhaps when more people become quite enlightened the usual moment will be described differently. Right now I think a moment is such a very dire and almost strenuous concept because it is filled with expectations of today's efficiency and the thought that one should make the best of each moment and be happy. Which is quite hard I believe.

-wildflowr

[brifae]

good post but what feels good might not what be whats best for us long term, and to know light much darkness must be explored. focus is destiny though, our perception becomes reality, and human focus has levels of need that are physical before spiritual actuation or relationships must be made we need food.