The habit of ignoring our present moments in favor of others yet to come leads directly to a pervasive lack of awareness of the web of life in which we are embedded. This includes a lack of awareness and understanding of our own mind and how it influences our perceptions and our actions. It severely limits our perspective on what it means to be a person and how we are connected to each other and the world around us.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Oddly timely that Mindfulness Training was offered to me through the local school system – while my ego said – what? I already practice meditation – why – but then, out of curiosity, I took up the offer. I am so enjoying the program offered by Mindful Schools because it puts into a structured package all the things I have learned on my yoga journey and makes them plain English language that everyone can better understand. If it’s to be more effective, I would also go a step further and take the Dynamic Mindfulness Course with Niroga Institute. It’s a natural progression as we need that “dynamic” movements to get to the stillness –
we can’t just sit like monks from the get-go … especially in a school setting because Mind is so intimately connected to the Body, we have to study and affect both to make a real change; that of personal transformations connected to the transformations of those around you.
To me, Mindfulness appears to be a Western word encapsulating yoga philosophy. It’s about Dhyana with the use of Pranayama, so that we regain our vitality and find a purposeful meaning in life. But of course one cannot talk like this with all this Sanskrit and yoga philosophy so … translated into a more palatable and accessible language. And it’s rolled out into the schools where its most needed. This recognition of such a need is also interesting because the ancients had the asana, the physical moving aspects of yoga to settle down the energetic young boys too agitated or behaviorally troubled to get to that place of just sitting. Quietly to reflect … It’s a tough proposition to ask testosterone driven boys or anxious girls (girls were not allowed to physical yoga way back when …) to be still and quiet enough to meditate. So the physical – the dynamic movements – settled them down. Once the body releases tension and tightness, the fidgeting, the tingling, the itchiness, the soreness … the wiggling, the bouncing, jumping … stops. The agitation in the body eases. Then … fluctuations of the mind ceases to take us to that world only those who experienced it can define … as place of peace and equanimity. As a student of yoga, Mindfulness to me is a Western name to Dyana, i.e., meditation or a process and a practice to get to that state.
At the root of Mindfulness is the Eastern philosophy, particularly from yoga philosophy and kind of reminded me of that story from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
