Mindfulness is life’s direct connection to experience…

Dwelling in the world of the unknown- filled with uncertainty and the looming presence of helplessness, the body contracts with swelling tension and restlessness- “calls to duty- to action”- as we move to avoid or distract the uncertainty. In our practice the act of doing nothing only seems to exacerbate the seemingly unavoidable feelings. However, staying with the uncertainty- the not knowing- and “doing nothing” is at the heart of our practice.

In the “space” of helplessness and uncertainty, there breeds the feelings of ineptness, incompetence, or resignation. Yet to embrace these sensations without judgment opens our field of awareness to a “space” where the crosscurrents of emotion flow with less disruptive and disquieting power. Can we stay with it? Are we caring enough to allow these waves- these sensations to flow through without acting or doing? In the midst of our emotional turbulence, can we allow the right action to arise or unfold on its own accord? Mindfulness helps us to remember- to acknowledge- to actualize our capacity for wakefulness and stability in the face and “space” of fear and uncertainty- to just be with it…

Holding an honest and genuine relationship with the impulse to avoid, distract, suppress, or repress that which may be both uncomfortable and painful opens us to the mystery of being- and the mystery of life.  In the “empty space” of uncertainty, we can begin to really work with the raw ingredients of our lives- the “shadow elements” of the “self”- those qualities that keep us rigid and hardened to experiences that don’t present comfortable familiarity and feelings of knowing and grasping potential outcome. Work of this nature can be both humbling and liberating. Into the “shadows” of long-standing habits, we can exercise our capacity to be curious – to loosen fixations and tendencies to impose our experiences to be a certain way.

Mindfulness offers us what psychologists term as “higher order responses” for both ordinary and highly charged situations. Plugged directly into the present moment and into the open or free space of our attention and awareness, we see what is actually happening rather than through our states of mind. Sustained “free attention” of mindsight allows us to move into the “spaciousness” of the moment behind the thought and emotion- to a deep, inner wisdom which is our discriminating or discerning awareness- an intuitive sense of what may be genuinely “right” for the given situation.

Standing “freely” in relation to our states of mind- whatever they may be and as they are allows our forces of habit to dissolve away in this spaciousness. They lose their solidity and reactive force- like
sunlight breaking through the clouds our very essential yet “ordinary” nature shines forth. It is this direct connection- this “fluid” capacity to “see” and to “open” to the spaciousness of our moments that allows for expansion and growth. In this spaciousness, there is room to shift and to transform.

Examining & working with our moments follow and flow from our just “being” with this spaciousness- with purpose, intention, and non-judgment. Embodying and actualizing our mindfulness develops from letting things be- letting them arise and emerge to reveal how we should respond not react- imposing our unnatural order on how each and every moment should unfold. When we impose order, we limit ourselves in a contracting and confining manner- and in many instances defying the very nature of what may be intended…

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