Mindfulness training wakes us up from the trance of delusion. Mindfulness shifts us out of fantasy into seeing clearly. Without mindfulness, the deluded mind habitually reacts, unconsciously grasping pleasant experiences and rejecting unpleasant ones. Harder to see, delusion ignores neutral experience. When things are neutral, we get bored and spaced out because we are so culturally conditioned to seek high levels of stimulation. So we miss the aliveness behind the neutral experiences that make up much of our day. And yet when our attention grows, what seems neutral or dull becomes full with an unseen richness.
Instead of trying to dispel delusion, the first act of mindfulness is to simply notice the times it arises, when we go on “automatic pilot.” We can take an interest in lack of awareness. We will notice how delusion comes hand-in-hand with worry, distractedness, speed, and addiction. It is a challenge to our habits to pay attention to delusion. As we do so we begin to wake up
– Jack Kornfield
Leave a Reply