What are mindfulness and forgiveness? (video)

Jack Kornfield; Ananda, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, Meetup.com/Zen-7

To cultivate all that is good (sila, samadhi, paññā), to abandon all that is bad (greed, hatred, delusion), this is the advice of all Awakened Ones like the historical and the future Buddha.

.

Mindfulness=bare awareness.

The Buddha said, "Mindfulness [sati] is all helpful." For example, there are Five Powers (bala) or factors to balance among the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. They are:

1. wisdom (paññā)
2. confidence (saddhā)
3. energy (viriya)
4. coherence (samādhi)
5. mindfulness (sati).

This is interesting because wisdom or insight must be balanced with confidence or faith.

Buddhism is not about "faith" but saddha.

Too much wisdom can lead to cunning, whereas too much faith or conviction can lead to gullibility or foolishness.

Energy or "virility" (viriya, endurance, strength, persistence) must be balanced with coherence or collectedness, which because of its single-pointedness of attention is liable to slip and lead to sleep. Too much energy will lead to restlessness and worry, agitation, mental flurry.

Allow. Ask Four Questions. - Byron Katie

But as for mindfulness (conscientiousness, vigilance, clarity, memory), it need not be balanced. One cannot get too much of it. It helps all of the other factors.

In fact, there are not really 37 different requisites of enlightenment. That's splitting hairs. Fourteen of the requisites are mindfulness.

Mindfulness is important to MEDITATION (absorption, zen, jhana, ch'an, concentration, coherence, mental-actualization, lit. "bringing into being") just as [skill in] meditation is important to mindfulness. They are mutually supportive.

Jack Kornfield: 12 Principles of Forgiveness

If we can't allow or accept what is, we cannot be mindful, so let's try some forgiveness first.

What is "mindfulness"?

Awaken right where you are!

Jack Kornfield, a noble Buddhist teacher, has a  great definition in Bringing the Dharma Home: Awakening Right Where You Are. Mindfulness is a kind of attention that is nonjudgmental, non-evaluative, aware of what is.

In a sense it is acceptance of what is, whatever it is. But if we cannot "accept," because we just can't, mindfulness is watching. Be the watcher, the awareness that is unmoved by things. 

• Jack Kornfield: Forgiveness Meditation

Mindfulness is awareness, attention, consciousness. It is not thinking about what is. (By thinking we are putting one degree of separation between the thing and us). It is not contemplation, recollection, remembrance (that's anussati); that's different. It is not pondering, solving, measuring, or ruminating. Abandon rumination! It is not, for once, reacting in the three ways we always react, with:

1. passion (grabbing and clinging)
2. aversion (anger, revulsion, fear, rejection), or
3. delusion (wrong views, confusion, boredom because we don't know how to immediately feel about something since it isn't attractive or repulsive).

Jhere's power in NOW. - I know, Eckhart.

If we cannot accept what is because it is -- as the Buddha and modern teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie (thework.com) might have us respond rather than react -- can we at least "allow" what is and simply "let it be"? Think of the Beatles.

• Buddhist Tara Brach: Learning to Respond, Not React

Can we feel it, note it, tolerate it, remain aware of it without being moved to attraction, aversion, or delusion by it? That is mindfulness! In other words, that is being mindful of it. It's being cool, calm, and collected, so zen.

We are being mindful when we are conscientious and have sufficient presence of mind to remember to bring the mind back to the meditation subject, such as the breath or the focus of our coherent/concentrated attention.