But we don't seem to get mindfulness 'once and for all.' It only seems to come 'now and on purpose.'
I've quoted my young friend Jason before. I love what he said. We'd been on a long hike and when we got back his mother asked him if he'd had a good time. He said, "Hiking's okay. Except you have to walk."
Mindfulness is okay too--except we have to pay attention.
Here's a very helpful mindful 'to do' list from Eckhart Tolle. I've made a couple of small changes and formatted his one paragraph into a poem so that it scans more slowly--inviting our brains to take it in point by point, step by step.
---
The Silent Watcher
Be present as the watcher.
Be at least as interested
in your reactions
as in the situation
or person
that causes you
to react.
Notice how often
your attention
is in the past
or future.
Don’t judge
or analyze
what you observe.
Watch the thought,
feel the emotion,
observe the reaction.
Don’t make a personal problem
out of any
of them.
You will then
feel something
more powerful
than any of those things
you observe:
the
still,
observing
presence
itself
behind
the content…
the Silent Watcher.
