Mindfulness for Happiness

Mindfulness – Noun : AWARENESS.

Well! Well!

That’s what the dictionary on my smart phone tells me. These smartphones after all aren’t as smart as the manufacturers claim them to be.

I mean “Awareness”, that’s it?! 

A profound, deeply enmeshed in Buddhist philosophy word like “Mindfulness” and that’s all it means? I mean, our revered monks in the monastery are trying to achieve just that?

AWARENESS! (you ought to be kidding me).

Awareness, as far as my knowledge goes means to be in the present moment, free from the guilt of past and anxiety of the future. Is being in the present moment such a daunting task that a lot of people spend years trying to master it?

Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, why don’t you just sit for a while and detach yourself from the endless stream of thoughts.

Is it difficult?

Is it easy?

Or just boring and lame?

The art of mindfulness they say (not me, Okay.) is to detach oneself from the cycle of birth and death of thoughts. Here I casually drop in another Buddhist jargon – detachment. Another simple word that packs in too much of philosophy, doesn’t it?

Does it imply that one should leave everything behind and enter the wilderness? Sometimes though, that’s exactly what I want to do, detach myself from the naughty students and head off to the mall.  Well, detachment here means freeing oneself from the chain of thoughts and being CONSCIOUS – Conscious of this wonderful present moment.  

There are quite a few ways of practising this – one of them is to simply observe your breath – the inhalation and exhalation while being completely conscious of the present moment. That’s it, believe me that’s all there is.

STAY MINDFUL, STAY HAPPY, STAY BLESSED. 

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