Mindfulness

 

A disciple and his teacher were walking through the forest. The disciple was disturbed by the fact that his mind was in constant unrest. He asked his teacher: "Why most people's minds are restless, and only a few possess a calm mind? What can one do to still the mind?"

 The teacher looked at the disciple, smiled and said:
"I will tell you a story. An elephant was standing and picking leaves from a tree. A small fly came, flying and buzzing near his ear. The elephant waved it away with his long ears. Then the fly came again, and the elephant waved it away once more". This was repeated several times. Then the elephant asked the fly:
"Why are you so restless and noisy? Why can't you stay for a while in one place?"

The fly answered: "I am attracted to whatever I see, hear or smell. My five senses pull me constantly in all directions and I cannot resist them. What is your secret? How can you stay so calm and still?"

The elephant stopped eating and said:
"My five senses do not rule my attention. Whatever I do, I get immersed in it. Now that I am eating, I am completely immersed in eating. In this way I can enjoy my food and chew it better. I rule and control my attention, and not the other way around."

Upon hearing these words, the disciple's eyes opened wide and a smile appeared on his face. He looked at his teacher and said:
"I understand! If my five senses are in control of my mind and attention, then my mind is in constant unrest. If I am in charge of my five senses and attention, then my mind becomes calm".

"Yes, that's right", answered the teacher, " The mind is restless and goes wherever the attention is. Control your attention, and you control your mind".

Sometimes, you wish to go for a walk, knowing how good it is for your health and how wonderful you feel afterwards, yet, you feel too lazy, and prefer to watch TV instead, or sleep a little more. We may be aware of the fact that we need to change eating habits or stop a bad habit, yet, we don't have the inner power and persistence to change these habits.

Does this sound familiar? How many times have we said, "I wish I had will power and self discipline"? How many times have we started to do something, only to quit after a short while? We all have had experiences like these.

Everyone has inner, unconscious, or partly conscious impulses, making them say or do things they later regret saying or doing. On many occasions people do not think before they talk or act. By developing  will power and mindfulness, one becomes conscious of the inner, subconscious impulses, and gains the ability to reject them when they are not for his/her own good or for anyone else.

In today’s world we are surrounded by temptations of all kinds which can lead us on the wrong path very easily. An individual’s actions must be governed by the fact that whatever he does at any moment in time he must never regret it later. To be able to do this there is only one tool in all our hands which is “ mindfulness”. All great men and women have mastered this art which was instrumental in leading them to the path of success.

All of us at some point of time have to do tasks and jobs which we don’t like to do but we have to do it. None of us can escape from this truth. Chanakya in the Arthshastra says, “Only doing whatever pleases him does not achieve anything” (7.11.35) We often do many things that we are not supposed to do like watching TV in excess, eating unhealthy food, mindlessly using gadgets and wasting time in unproductive activities and later repent about the lost time. By practicing mindfulness we would be putting all our time to productive use.

The source of discipline could initially be external like parents putting some restrictions on activities of their children, teachers forcing students to abide by rules to inculcate discipline. But eventually this external motivator must become intrinsic motivation.

Swami Vivekananda says, “The body is but an outer covering of the mind and whatever the mind will dictate to it, it will have to carry out. So there is nothing to be afraid of.” Understanding this philosophy and practicing it in its true sense is mindfulness.

The youth today is very intelligent, is exposed to immense resources and information and have abundant energy. But they are also surrounded by lot of negativities all around which takes the youth in the wrong direction. Mindfulness helps a person to unite and assimilate all his scattered thoughts, helps him/her overcome fear and make him/her very strong, and rise to a higher level of thinking.

An effective method for developing and improving these abilities is to perform certain actions or activities, which one would rather avoid doing due to laziness, procrastination, weakness, shyness, etc. By doing something that one does not like doing or are too lazy to do, one overcomes subconscious resistance, trains mind to obey, strengthen inner powers and gain inner strength. Inner strength is attained by overcoming inner resistance. This makes a great difference in everyone’s life, and brings inner strength, self mastery and decisiveness.

Finally discipline is not inborn in us. We cultivate it during our life. We may fail often but that should not demotivate us to give up practicing self discipline. Discipline leads us to mindfulness. Regularly practicing mindfulness through a disciplined life will help us to enjoy weekends and holidays to its fullest as we have completed all our tasks on time by overcoming procrastination and have set aside time exclusively to unwind. Moreover the satisfaction derived by engaging in any work with complete mindfulness greatly enhances our overall life satisfaction.

Wishing you all a Happy Dushera and a Mindful year ahead.