MINDFULNESS OF PHYSICAL ACTIONS
| One thing at a time
& that done well! Another area in the contemplation of body is to be of all physical actions. We brush our teeth, wash our face and body, we eat and drink in addition to many other daily routine activities, which we perform from the time we wake up in the morning till we go to sleep in the night. To carry out all these actions with right mindfulness, is also being mindful of body. This exercise is very important to develop right mindfulness. To try to perform more than one function at a time is not a skill, rather it is a weakness. Performing one function at a time is the skill and that requires effort, mindfulness and awareness. So as far as possible be mindful of this aspect in daily life, and try to perform one function at a time for example, when you brush your teeth, pay attention to it and nothing else. When you eat, do not talk. Eat in silence and in mindfulness. From these examples you will realise that developing right mindfulness is not such an easy task. So one has to bring forth the necessary resolve and effort to develop it. One has to make sacrifices. Nothing worthwhile is ever achieved without sacrifices. There is no other way. With the development of mindfulness, one realises the true nature of bodily actions. Each action arises and then ceases. When one ceases, another arises, which too will then cease. For all these actions another important function must precede. That is intention. Intention too is a function, a mental function. It too arises and then ceases. It’s never for all time. This process of watching the changing nature of all actions too develops the perception of impermanence. Going beyond conventions |