Mindfulness is right meditation, says the master

How many times did we hear the word, ‘mindfulness’ and what the mind thinks and knows?

We hear the word, ‘mindfulness’ 100 times every day. Read below

Be mindful if you are careless
Be mindful of eating
Be mindful of talking
Be mindful of the breath
It is easy to say be mindful instead be in meditation
Focus on the breath to be mindful

For the last few years, saying mindful seems easier than meditation

Otherwise, both are the same

I am not saying it but the traditional wisdom that lasted for 6000 years says it, confirms it, and defines it

We think of mindfulness and intellect says, yes, it is about

Awareness of the present moment
Live from moment to moment
Experience inner peace and happiness
Managing day to day stress and suffering
Improving health and well-being

And the marketing of mindfulness is also quite amusing

5 minutes to mindfulness
10 minutes practice of mindfulness
E-mindfulness
1 minute of practice leads to inner peace

What we are talking and what is the literal meaning of mindfulness?

Buddha spent more than 12 years to succeed in mindfulness. Buddha said – no practice, but clear understanding is important. That is why he founded the noble eightfold path, four noble truths, and put mindfulness as the seventh of the eightfold path.

We think, rationalize and leave the six steps and directly move to the seventh step of the noble eightfold path.

Eastern Wisdom uses many words like Sakshi, Vipassana, Mindfulness, Meditation, Contemplation, and reflection, Preksha as different approaches to meditation. It does not mean they are different; surely, approaches are different based on states of mind, the temperament of an individual. They follow the same principles expressed differently by masters.

People define mindfulness in their ways. However, it may or may not work

It appears as if there is no basis of mindfulness because people define it in their ways or they give credit to Buddha. They try to prove that Buddhism is not a religion. Hence anyone can practice it. What about computers, phones, and other gadgets – there is no tag of religion. Similarly, there is no tag to any mindfulness or meditation journey

We raise doubt about it, we continue to keep the doubt, and later we try to prove it that it is not religion. What is the fact about mindfulness or meditation? There was no religion when meditation/ mindfulness practices were discovered, practiced, and validated.

Secondly, Eastern wisdom aims at self-discovery, and meditation/ mindfulness is one of many practices leading to the discovery of self, i.e., our true nature of subjective reality.

How mindfulness as meditation used in the west?

The word, ‘mindfulness’ exists in the English language; ‘mindfulness’ in the French language. The other words exist – mindful, mindfully, mindedness. The meaning of the word, ‘mindfulness’ in the English language – it moves from ‘men’ to ‘mind’ to ‘mindful.’

Mind means to remember, to recollect (1400 BC), to perceive (1500BC), and be careful about (1750), to take care of, to look after (1690). Mindful means – of good memory, of recollecting something or someone. There are other meanings – Keep in mind, retain in the memory. Then Mind? Also, Mindful? Are they the same or different?

A scholar of the Pali language, Thomas William Rhys David’s (1842-1922) translated the seventh of eighth fold noble path as mindfulness. Samana sati in Pali and Smriti in Sanskrit means – memory, recollecting, self-remembering. Therefore, he said – it is right mindfulness. Daniel John Gingerly (1845) cleared further concerning eastern wisdom. He further wrote -mindfulness as the right meditation.

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