Mindful-ness or Mindless-ness
Read an article in the Guardian about the ‘harmful’ effects of Mindfulness. It cites that teachers are inadequately trained or have little experience in the Mindfulness practice themselves. This was in the context of MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) and mental health. As with everything, when something becomes a ‘must-have’ or the next best thing since sliced bread, expectations increase and, with higher expectations, more are the chances of disappointment.
And therein lies the whole rub. Mindfulness is all about watching one’s expectations, hopes and desires and not to make the whole thing into a feature length movie – with oneself playing a starring role! A simple practice of watching the breath is all what Mindfulness is about. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a simple observation of the in-breath and the out-breath. Everything else is in the mind – the expectation of it solving all our problems, us ‘achieving’ the health, wealth and vitality we want, the freedom from the mind and desires and the world and everything else. What we fail to realise is that all of this is rooted in the mind. How clever and subtle the mind gets! In an attempt to just watch the mind, it again creates a whole list of issues, to-dos thereby strengthening its own existence. When Mindfulness is all about allowing the mind to be, allowing it to function when it needs to and allowing it to rest when it is not needed.
As Eckhart Tolle has said:
“Let me ask you this: can you be free of your mind whenever you want to? Have you found the ‘off’ button?”
The Osho Vipassana weekends run at Fairfield House are therefore combined with Osho’s active meditations to counterbalance the silent sittings. This is to help with releasing restlessness of the body and the mind to enable silent sittings. Based on Osho’s active meditations using catharsis and active techniques enable us to sit for longer periods. They allow the body and the mind to express their restlessness and all their chaotic activity so when it is time for the mind to be turned off, the ‘off’ button can be found!
“Remember one thing: meditation means awareness. Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Action is not the question, but the quality that you bring to your action. Walking can be a meditation if you walk alertly. Sitting can be a meditation if you sit alertly. Listening to the birds can be a meditation if you listen with awareness. Just listening to the inner noise of your mind can be a meditation if you remain alert and watchful. The whole point is: one should not move in sleep. Then whatsoever you do is meditation.” OSHO