Mindfulness Practices
In the many mindfulness practices - as found in various forms of yoga and martial arts, Buddhism, Breema and more - there seems to be a shared pattern:
- Bring attention to what is indisputably in the present, such as the movements of the body, the breath, and so on.
- This shifts the center of gravity to the seeing itself, to the witness.
- And this helps us notice the (infinite) space any experience, any content, arises within. It helps the experiences themselves unstick, flow, come and go on their own. There is less resistance to them. This is a taste of liberation, of freedom.
- As there is more familiarity with this process, we gradually realize several things: All phenomena happen within space - including our human self. No segment of the world of phenomena has an inherent "I" in it, no matter how convincing it may seem at times. And that even the seeing of all this has no "I" in it. There is no seer, just the seeing.
- And through this, we may eventually realize selflessness - that there is no "I" anywhere, not in any of the content (sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts) nor as the context (space & awareness).