It seems to me that many people in Zen Practice have come to confuse "
being present/mindful in the moment" (for example, "when drinking tea, just drink tea" ... a
sometimes appropriate and lovely way to experience life) ... with "
being at one with the moment" (allowing and merging with conditions of life "
just as they are"). The two are not quite the same, and are often confused, and the latter is much more at the heart of this
Shikantaza Path ...
Yes, I believe that there are times to be "mindful" ... and there are times not. Sometimes when I eat, I just eat ... when I sip tea, I just sip tea ... when bowing, just bowing ... fully absorbed in that action. A wonderful, insightful practice. When doing one thing, just do one thing with all one's body-and-mind.
At other times, I just grab a sandwich and a coke while reading the newspaper and thinking about the job I have to do. That's life too. Nothing wrong with it.
(
I do not know where the idea started among some folks that the 'goal' of this practice is to live the first way every moment of every day. That would be pretty awful (if not harmful) to live like that all or even most of the time. What's wrong with also sometimes reading the paper, thinking about work, while grabbing a quick sandwich? There is a place for all of that.)
Further, people get even more confused about "mindful" in Buddhism because the word is used in a couple of distinct ways.
Another, rather
different meaning of "mindful" often found in Buddhism is to develop awareness of the "mind theatre" running constantly in our heads (
developing the ability to identify the thoughts and emotions that play through our heads, and how they create our experience of "reality" ... e.g., "now I am temporarily sad" "now I am reacting with anger") That is a wonderful, insightful practice too ... very very important ... but I caution against thinking that you must or can do that 24/7.
In my view, the heart of this Practice is merely "
being at one" with
self-life-world just as it is ... dropping the resistance, barriers, separation between our "self" and all the circumstances in which that "self" imagines it finds itself in ... until even the walls between "self" and "life-world" (
or self and itself) soften or even fully drop away ...
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