Know - but what? When you get to the bottom, you begin to understand that wherever you go, you are already there. Whatever work you complete, you have completed it. Whatever you think at the moment is exactly what you think. Whatever happens to you, that's what happened. And then an important question arises: what to do with it? In other words: what's next?
Like it or not, but the present moment is all that a person actually encounters. And we are so careless: we live our lives as if we have completely forgotten that we are right here - where we are - and are busy only with what we do. Every moment we find ourselves at the crossroads of these "here" and "now". But as soon as a cloud of oblivion envelops our present moment, we are already lost. And again the question arises: what next?
By saying “lost”, I meant that every moment we lose touch with ourselves and with the entire range of our capabilities, mindlessly get stuck in the rut of habitual actions and humbly “look”, “think”, “do”. In an instant, we break all ties with the deepest in us that can give us the great joy of creativity, knowledge and development. If we are careless, these foggy moments will stop and hide life itself from us.
To touch the present, wherever we are, we should suspend our sensory experience until the present enters our lives. Only by really feeling it, seeing it in its entirety and realizing it, we will cognize and understand it deeper. And then we will comprehend the meaning of the present, take it into ourselves and move on. But for some reason we are more often concerned about the past - what has passed, or the future that has not yet come. We are all looking for the promised land, hoping that life there will be better and happier, as in our dreams or as it was in the past. In fact, we rarely, if ever, admit that we are inwardly striving for it. Moreover, at best we only partially understand what we are doing in this life and what we are doing with it; how our actions affect, and on a more subtle level and thoughts, on everything visible and invisible to our eyes, on everything we have done and not done.
For example, we often unconsciously fall into the presumptuous belief that everything that comes to our mind - our fleeting judgments and opinions - is the essence of "true" knowledge of what is happening "there" - "outside", "around us" and “Here” is in our souls. How wrong we are!
And how dearly we pay for our unjustified arrogance, for all our almost conscious disregard for the charm of the present, the moments of which silently overshadow our life, and we do not even know. Maybe we are simply powerless to do anything? But then you won't get to where you really are, you won't get in touch with the full range of your capabilities. We try to defend ourselves with our own fiction, reassuring ourselves that we supposedly know who we are, where we are, where we are going, we know what is happening to us. And they themselves are pulled together by the fetters of judgments, fantasies and are directed most of all towards the past or the future: towards that which we crave, or towards that which we run and fear. All this is constantly piling up in front of us, hiding our path and the very ground under our feet.
Not knowing that a person lives in a captivity of dreams, Buddhists call ignorance or simply stupidity. They call the touch of their own ignorance the completeness of awareness. The completeness of awareness is an ancient Buddhist practice that is directly related to our daily lifestyle. She expresses herself not in conversion to Buddhism, but in awakening and living in harmony with herself and the world.
The completeness of awareness presupposes the study of human nature, the acquisition of a worldview and a person's place in this world, as well as the ability to appreciate the fullness of each lived moment. More than anything, it presupposes involvement.
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From the point of view of Buddhism, the ordinary waking state of consciousness is considered to be very limited and limiting. It resembles the continuation of sleep rather than wakefulness. Meditation helps us to get rid of this dream, habitual and unconscious, and thus allows us to live in touch with the entire range of possibilities we are aware of and not aware of. Sages, yogis and teachers of Zen Buddhism, in the process of millennia of knowledge, have brought out something very useful, including for the culture of the modern West, balancing the tendencies of our civilization: to conquer nature and control it, completely neglecting the fact that man is an integral part of it. The generalized experience of these teachings suggests that, exploring the depths of living nature and, in particular, the nature of one's own soul, through scrupulous and unceasing self-observation,we will learn to live more peacefully, harmoniously and wisely. It forms a worldview that is not characteristic of the narrowness of materialism prevailing in the West. But this worldview cannot be called either purely oriental or mystical. Thoreau, who lived in New England, saw the same limitation of the ordinary state of the human mind as early as 1846 and wrote passionately about its sad consequences.
Mindfulness was considered the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's easy to understand its essence. The strength of the method lies in training and application. Mindfulness is a special kind of deliberate focus on the present moment without trying to somehow appreciate it. This kind of attention develops alertness, clarity, and a real sense of the present. It turns us to face the flowering of life. If you miss these moments, you will not only miss the most valuable thing in your life, but you will also not be able to realize all the wealth and range of opportunities for your growth and transformation. A weakened awareness of the present will inevitably cause other problems, the causes of which are rooted in unconscious and thoughtless actions and behavior, which are often caused by deep-rooted fears and feelings of danger. These problems, if you do not pay attention to them,gradually multiply, and as a result, there will be a feeling of dead end and lost. Over time, a person loses confidence that he is able to rebuild his strength for a fuller and happier life, is able to get rid of diseases.
Fulness of awareness offers a simple but effective way out of the current impasse into the embrace of wisdom and life energy. It gives us the ability to independently choose which direction to move and how to live, including family relationships, attitude to work, to the world around us and the planet as a whole, and, most importantly, to ourselves as an individual.
This path is rooted in Buddhism, Taoism and yoga, and can be traced in the works of thinkers such as Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, as well as in the wisdom of the American people. The key to it is the ability to appreciate the beauty of the present and develop a close connection with this moment, constantly addressing it with due attention and discernment. This is the exact opposite of taking life for granted.
The habit of neglecting the present for the sake of future moments only leads to a depressing realization of the impossibility of breaking free from the web of life. Here is the lack of awakening, and the lack of understanding of our own soul, and the degree of their impact on our feelings and actions. This sharply limits our understanding of what it means to be human, what connection exists between us and the world around us. Religion traditionally supports this kind of fundamental research within the framework of spirituality, however, the fullness of awareness is practically not associated with religion, except in the deepest meaning, which seeks to reveal the primordial secret of being and recognize the existence of a vital connection with all that exists.
When we decide to open up and not be a victim of our own preferences and dislikes, opinions and prejudices, projections and expectations, new opportunities open up before us, and we get a chance to free ourselves from the straitjacket of the unconscious. I like to call mindfulness the art of living mindfully. There is no need to become a Buddhist or a Yogi to practice this art. Anyone who has heard about Buddhism knows that its essence is to be yourself and not try to become something else than you have already become. The essence of Buddhism is to touch your own depths, the goal is to fully reveal them. It aims to awaken from sleep, making it possible to see things as they are. Initially, only one who has awakened to understand his own essence is called a Buddha.
So, the fullness of awareness does not contradict any creeds and traditions - religious or, if you like, scientific. It does not impose anything on you, and least of all some new system of religion or ideology. This is only a practical way to experience a closer contact with the fullness of being through systematic self-observation, self-knowledge and conscious actions. There is no lifelessness, reasoning or insensitivity in it. By its very nature, fullness of awareness is gentle, grateful, and nurturing. Her other name is cordiality.
One disciple once said: "While I was a Buddhist, my family and friends just went crazy, but now that I have become a Buddha, this no longer saddens anyone."