Mindfulness+ ethical conduct

Mindfulness+ ethical conduct is great support for meditation. When we act in ethical ways, we have fewer memories or imagined future scenarios for the mind to get involved with or snagged on. This frees the mind to really settle into meditation. 

The first step is being mindful of your chosen area, noting what is actually happening. Changing it is the second step, which is your Right Effort. But the critical first step is simply recognising clearly what you are doing, saying, or thinking. 

What elements of ethical conduct are areas ripe for you to work with? There are many aspects of speech one can attend to: speaking truthfully, words of harmony, at the right time, for benefit, or with a kindly heart. Or one might also focus on food: receiving food appreciatively, eating appreciatively, eating methodically, not looking at what another is eating in a finding-fault way. 

These are a few possibilities, and surely there are many more. Do any of these resonate with you? What might bringing mindfulness to one or more of these areas in your daily life look like? 

Would you like to give it a go? The Buddhist Patimokkha is a rich resource for practical 'how-to' ideas. Or write admin@mindfulness.plus to find out more about how Mindfulness+ coaching can support you.

Mindfulness by itself is not enough

“Mindfulness by itself doesn’t seem like it’s enough” is a comment I’ve often heard. And as a mindfulness teacher, I agree entirely.

Mindfulness is a very useful skill to develop and has many applications, but it’s not intended to be used in isolation. Yes, we do need to look at it in isolation in order to learn it. But when it comes to applying mindfulness, we see that it works in conjunction with making wise choices, speaking in ways that lead to harmony, and generally acting with integrity in terms of one’s occupation and other everyday actions. This understanding of mindfulness goes back over 2500 years, to the Buddhist roots of the modern mindfulness movement. It's like the first in a series of stepping stones -- extremely useful, needed in order to reach the others, but not intended to be the end of the journey!

The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course is a great way to become familiar with what mindfulness is and to establish your own regular practice. (There’s a course at the Abergavenny Natural Therapy Centre starting 26 Feb 2020 – the registration deadline is 14 Feb). Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBSR has a robust evidence base and is known for positive effects like lowered blood pressure, increased ability to manage pain, and feeling more empowered to make positive choices.

The MBSR course serves as a springboard to other Mindfulness+ offerings. Once you’ve established your understanding and practice of mindfulness in the MBSR course, you can join follow-on courses in Mindfulness+ Climate Change & Action, or Mindfulness+ Communication. These are practical courses designed to put mindfulness to good use in the everyday world, helping us see things more clearly and make wiser choices. As one participant put it:
We didn’t just hear ideas – we ‘tried them on’; wonderful, caring, enthusiastic and intelligent delivery; great, clear pack to take home.

Ready to make some changes? Curious about new perspectives? You're warmly invited to join a mindfulness course.

Image credit :"Soraku-en stepping stones" by MShades is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Why Mindfulness+ ?

In the modern secular mindfulness movement, there seems to be a growing understanding that mindfulness by itself is not enough. That's a good development, understanding that mindfulness is an important skill that works best when combined with other skills and processes.

 

Interesting but confusing ways are popping up to try to deal with this issue. I've heard assertions that mindfulness necessarily includes curiosity, or a positive intention, or warmth. While those can all be quite useful, they aren't mindfulness. You can be mindful of curiosity, or mindful of a positive intention, or mindful of warmth, but that doesn't mean they are the same thing.

To illustrate this, think of your tastebuds. They can be aware of tastes like sweetness, bitterness, or sourness. The tastebuds themselves aren't sweetness, they aren't bitterness, and they're not sourness. The tastebuds have the capacity to experience and identify tastes, but the tastebuds are not the tastes.

 

And yet the whole purpose of tastebuds is to taste. So you need tastebuds _plus_ something to taste.

The 'plus' in Mindfulness+ represents something similar: mindfulness is combined with something to be mindful about. The + sign serves as a reminder that we need to add something to bare mindfulness. And the question "plus what?" prompts active thinking about what that something extra might be.

In the context of Early Buddhism, mindfulness was practiced in conjunction with other elements such as clear understanding (sampajañña), factors of awakening (bojjhaṅgā, of which mindfulness is one), or other aspects of the Eightfold Path like Right Effort, Right View, and Right Speech.

Mindfulness+ aims to re-introduce some of these compatible elements found in Early Buddhism. In particular, two Eightfold Path factors are highlighted -- Right Speech and Right Effort. Practicing these, conjoined with mindfulness, can lead to great and positive changes in one's life.