"Mindfulness – The Way of Buddhism"

We live in a society and culture that is becoming more and more hectic with each passing year. Constant change, constant stimulation, and constant activity are not only the dominant factors in most Americans lives, they are expected to be and they are sought after. Truly living in a given moment and sensing and feeling all that a particular moment has to offer are foreign concepts to our culture.

Photo by Levi XU on Unsplash

Usually when a person finds they have nothing to do at a particular time– that is – no new activity to consume a quiet moment, they become bored and quickly seek something that will occupy their thoughts and actions.

Unfortunately, our society reinforces the notion that constant activity and stimulation are essential if one is to be happy. Think about how our culture provides endless activities for people who might “have a little time on their hands.”

Shopping malls, once the mecca of American society, though not so much with online shopping – are still filled with people day and night throughout the year. Aside from holiday times, most people in shopping malls have no need to be there. They don’t need to be shopping for something – they are just trying to find something to occupy their time. Perhaps even more all-consuming these days is the propensity for people to spend endless hours surfing the internet – hour after hour, day after day. A lot of people who once went to shopping malls now spend their free time shopping on their computer. And then, of course, there is the television. Where once there were only three of four channels, now there are hundreds and added to this are numerous streaming services. Many people spend any free time they have glued to the TV – again, hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

Bars and nightclubs are filled with people who are trying to pass time in the company of others. Often times these places are the haven of the lonely and places that protect oneself from keeping company with themselves.

It is almost as though there is a force or power keeping each of us from living fully in the present, carefully appreciating and savoring the fullness of a moment of experience. We seem constantly bombarded by impulses that distract our attention and destroy our focus.

It is said that the Buddha once explained that the problem of life and death is itself the problem of mindfulness. Whether or not one is alive depends on whether one is mindful. He tells a story of what happened in a small village:

“A famous dancer had just come to the village and the people were swarming the streets to catch a glimpse of her. At that same moment, a condemned criminal was obliged to cross the village carrying a bowl of oil filled to the brim. He had to concentrate with all his might on keeping the bowl steady, for even if one drop of oil were to spill to the ground, the soldier directly behind him had orders to take out his sword and kill him.”

The Buddha then inquired of his followers, “Now, do you think the prisoner was able to keep all his attention so focused on the bowl that his mind did not stray and cause him to steal a glimpse of the famous dancer in town or look at the huge crowd of villagers making such a commotion?”

The question is, what is more valuable in life? Constant activity, constant stimulation, or, is life best appreciated by living in the present, experiencing all that a moment in life has to offer – in other words, being mindful?

I would say that it is impossible to be mindful at all times, in all moments of our lives. It is true that sometimes our activities and actions get in the way of mindfulness and sometimes for good and loving reasons. I can hardly use myself as a good example as one who is diligently mindful in all that I do. There are a lot of distractions in my life that keep me busy and don’t allow me to just sit and enjoy the moment.

One of the basic problems is that our society places no value on mindfulness and offers no examples of mindful moments. On the contrary, we are bombarded by images, messages, and suggestions that time spent with oneself in quiet reflection and concentration is boring and to be avoided at all costs.

A lot of marketing focuses on “the person on the go”, the person who has to constantly juggle numerous activities, the person who has no time for the trivial. Fast food sold both in restaurants and grocery stores caters to this image of people. Newer and more efficient appliances and gadgets offer the promise of more free time for the consumer. Cell phones, faxes, and internet hook-ups enable faster and more efficient communication so that we can use our time more efficiently. The message is that the more time one has, the more activities one can cram into their schedule.

Compared to our contemporaries of a century ago, with all of our labor-saving machines, appliances, and other devices, we should have a tremendous amount of free time on our hands. We should have much more ability to be mindful of our life’s experiences. But we don’t. Instead, it seems the more things we have that “save us time” the less time we really have because we continue to pack more things into the day’s activities. And this seems to be the implied goal of modern life.

When I lived on Long Island, the image of the morning commute on the Long Island Expressway offered such a good example of this. In bumper-to-bumper traffic you are guaranteed to see drivers who are not only operating their vehicles, but they are eating, drinking, shaving, talking on cell phones, reading the paper, listening to talk shows, typing out something on a lap top computer – and you will find people who would be doing many of these things – all at the same time. I’m sure this same behavior can be found near most American cities during commuting times.

So what is mindfulness? Well, I would say it is living fully in a given moment – appreciating all that you can experience. If our mind is the trickster that prevents us from truly living in the moment – maybe mindfulness is the shutting down of that part of our mind that causes us to become distracted from the moment.

When I was in seminary in Berkeley, I offered a sermon on Mindfulness to a local congregation. This particular congregation had a big, illuminated sign on the street with the congregation’s name and the weekly service time and sermon title – similar to what we have outside. As a seminary student, I was proud of the fact that my sermon title would appear that week on the sign along with my name.

As I drove up to the church before the service, I eagerly glanced at the large sign. In large bold letters I noted that Chris McMahon was offering a sermon not on “Mindfulness” but on “Mindlessness”. Distressed as I was about the change in title, I have come to realize that maybe the title offered a ray of truth.

So how does one live in the present – how does one become mindful. I believe that answer is that you have to work at it. You have to find times and moments where you can be mindful of life and your oneness and place within it.

I can think of no better example than sailing which, as many of you probably know, I dearly love to do but sadly because of time and circumstance, I can no longer do. It is said that people on powerboats are always trying to get somewhere, whereas, those people on sailboats have already arrived. This analogy seems true. Our culture fosters the notion that everyone should always be trying to get somewhere. Arriving is unacceptable because it means that one might become complacent, non-motivated, non-stimulating – in other words – boring.

The problem is that if we are always trying to get somewhere and never arriving, it is impossible to truly enjoy life because the very notion of satisfaction with the present moment is alien.

Sometimes we hear ourselves and others exclaim, “where did the time go?” as they refer to weeks, months, or years that have trickled by unnoticed. While it is natural to sometimes marvel at the speed of passing years, wondering where the time has gone can sometimes be a signal that a person is so intent on future activities that they never live in the present moment. Here again, our culture promotes this.

Obviously, it is desirable and responsible to plan for the future. Young and middle-aged people should take steps, when possible, to set up a plan for retirement. But if retirement becomes the only goal and the only focus a person has– they are bound to be greatly disappointed. If a person fails to appreciate the present with all that it has to offer – how will they ever develop an appreciation for a future stage of life? Besides there is no guarantee that anyone will live to enjoy retirement to the fullest potential in any case.

Similarly, retirement itself can be a great challenge for someone who has been active all of their life because retirement is a transition to a new stage of life and one that offers more time and more challenge to examine deeper aspects of life, including, the spiritual.

I am convinced that one of the great barriers to mindfulness is a person’s own fear of themselves. The fact is that many people do not know themselves – their talents and their limitations, their good traits and their bad. They do not acknowledge their joy nor their pain. Mindfulness forces a person to confront themselves and this is quite unappealing to a lot of people.

In my work in counseling, I have come across many people who are terrified of being alone with themselves for any length of time. These kind of people are constantly seeking new relationships with others in an effort not to be alone with themselves. What is ironic is that, most often, these kinds of people fail to develop deep relationships with others because deep love is contingent on knowing and loving oneself. A person cannot possibly have a healthy love for another person without loving them-self first. And the only way to love yourself is for a person to know and accept themselves and this requires mindfulness – living in the moment – seeing yourself as you truly are.

Similarly, it is not possible for a person to change unloving or destructive behavior if they are not mindful of themselves and their impact on others and the world around them. The expression, “that’s the way I am, take it or leave it” can be very destructive to a relationship and truly prevent personal and spiritual growth. I am convinced that the most conceited, arrogant, and selfish of people are the least mindful. This is so because these kinds of people live only in a world of themselves and not in the world of others. They cannot fully appreciate the joy and magnificence of life because their lack of attention to mindfulness keeps them trapped in a narcissistic world of themselves.

I define spirituality as the process and actions that a person takes to connect themselves with the sacred – no matter how they define the sacred. For some the sacred is God or a supreme creator. For others, the sacred is the universe itself, the Tao, the forces and energies that create and uphold life. For still others, the sacred is the world we live in and the life they experience. For some, the sacred is a combination of some or all of these things.

As a counselor and minister, I have noted that it is difficult for most people (I think nearly everyone) to find happiness in life and to learn to love and be connected with others without encountering their spiritual dimension and being challenged by it. I have spoken about this before. This may not happen at all times in a person’s life, but I believe ultimately that almost everyone is challenged by their spiritual side even though they may not recognize it.

Mindfulness lies at the epicenter of spiritual awareness and spiritual growth. One cannot be in touch with their spiritual dimension without living fully in the present and truly experiencing all the facets and happenings of their lives. And it is often times in the mindful moments that we grow spiritually the most.

It is curious that Buddhism places such great importance on mindfulness when, at the same time, Buddhism suggests that the world as we experience it is simply an illusion.

The Buddhist Sutra of Mindfulness says, “when walking, the practioner must be conscious that he is walking. When sitting, the practitioner must be conscious that he is sitting. When lying down, the practitioner must be conscious that he is lying down…… No matter what the position one’s body is in, the practitioner must be conscious of that position. Practicing thus, the practitioner lives in direct and constant mindfulness of the body.”

I think the Buddhist emphasis on mindfulness and meditation as the best vehicles to mindfulness are based on an understanding that the awareness generated in mindful activity enables a person to realize that the flurry of their day-to-day activity matters very little in the context of the whole. Therefore, without mindfulness, life will have appearances that are truly not real. In other words, life will be an illusion.

It is little wonder that all major religions of the world place a heavy emphasis on meditation and prayer. It is because these are vehicles to mindfulness and therefore avenues to the sacred.

How one prays and how one meditates varies considerably depending upon culture, religion, and personality. What works for one person, will not work for another. However, I believe that quiet meditation is probably the most effective channel to mindfulness. It isn’t easy to really meditate effectively, because our constantly active minds do not like quiet. In the second that we achieve an inner quite, the mind can become bored and shatters the peace by throwing an idea or image into the moment. But despite the years of practice that meditation may require, it can be a real road to mindfulness and inner peace.

There are also a lot of other things we can do to work on our mindfulness. Although we may not be able to do so at all times in our hectic lives, as often as we can, we should try. In preparing and eating a meal we should focus on creating a meal that we will enjoy and we should concentrate on enjoying the meal itself without submitting to the many distractions that often surround a fast-food meal.

When we are with ourselves, in our alone moments, we should spend time with each thought. Rather than drifting quickly from thought to thought, we should self-examine our strengths, our weaknesses, our joys and our pain.

In our relationship with others, we should spend careful time to listen, to learn, to appreciate. To love another is to be mindful of who they are and how each can help the other to grow.

In the work that we do day-to-day, we should try as often as we can to place our work in the context of a greater whole. How does my daily work and routine affect my life and the life of others? What is the ultimate goal I have in the work that I do? How does my work or my daily routine prevent me from experiencing life? How does my work make me more or less mindful of the world around me?

In practicing mindfulness, I can think of no better place to do it then here on Cape Cod. This is such an incredible place in so many ways. We should spend time listening to the singing of the birds, and the roaring of waves crashing upon the beach. We should watch the unfolding blooms in the spring as they splash brilliant colors across the greening fields and the woodlands. We should smell the salt of the sea, the pungent aroma of newly-turned earth, and the mixed breezes of a summer afternoon. We should feel the cool breeze of the fall, the hot sun upon our face, and the touch of a loved one. We should taste the pleasant varieties of a newly cooked meal and revel in the splendor and diversity of international cuisine.

To be mindful is to truly find the joy in life. It is also the way to find the path to the sacred.

So let’s go forward living and loving and being mindful of our beautiful Cape Cod.

Reverend Christopher J. McMahon

UUMH, October 20, 2024