Life is challenging and unpredictable and the future is uncertain. That’s just the way it is.
What we want we can’t always get; what we don’t want often comes our way.
What we want is to feel pleasure and be free from annoying, painful and difficult things in life. If it’s pleasant we want more of it – that’s how desire, the moving towards, is set in motion. The desire tips the mind out of balance “this way”.
If whatever is meeting us is unpleasant we develop aversion, the moving away from and the mind tips out of balance “that way”.
And so we swing, this way, that way, without choice, without awareness, helplessly reacting to whatever is happening and endlessly oscillating between desire and aversion, between pleasure and pain.
Fortunately, there is a middle ground, a mid-point between the extremes and it is available to us right here and now.
Mindfulness practice points to this place. It invites us to stop this endless yo-yoing, to wake up and come back to our senses. Literally.
Mindfulness is an invitation to come back to what is right here: to what we see, hear, taste, smell, touch and feel in our bodies; an invitation for our straying, swinging, tired mind to come back home and settle in the body. We relax and become present.
It is 0nly then we begin to realize it is mind that swings; the body is already here and this moment is always as it is.
Take a look at this cube for a moment.
At first you will see a cube facing one way, the way you habitually perceive a cube.
Now look at the cube carefully, opening to the possibility that there is a different way of perceiving it. It may take some time, so be patient.
If you saw the cube facing “this way”, see if you can see a cube facing “that way” ( away from you rather than towards or to the right rather than to the left)
Can you see a different cube?
“This cube” and “that cube”?
See if you can switch from one to the other?
How long did that take?
So for the purpose of this reflection “this cube” may represent our mental world, the inner world of endless train of thought and association, hopping from one to the other, obsessing about something, complaining, trying to fix and predict stuff and distracting our selves with daydreams, screens, food, objects of desire when we feel overwhelmed. This is the mental cube of our imaginary inner worlds, our stories.
“That cube” may represent the switch to present moment awareness, mind coming back and integrating with the body, to being here and now in the common reality we all share through our senses. This is the cube of now, as it is.
When the body and mind come together in the present moment awareness of THIS moment, we come back to reality, to what is here and now.
And what is here and now is somehow always manageable. Thinking about what needs doing is always much harder than simply doing what needs to be done. Thinking about our lives is always more complicated and unrewarding than simply living them as they are.
Once we can fully accept moments of our lives as they are, we jump of the rollercoaster ride of desire and aversion, we relax and find clarity, acceptance and contentment in the midst of uncertainty and chaos of life.
Believe it or not it’s a simple choice: this cube or that cube. Mindfulness is like a game of switching cubes and learning to play with the cube of now in clear awareness.
And as with all games, it’s best approached with a bit of humility, a sense of humour and some perseverance. Practice makes perfect…
