Mindfulness is a deliberate engagement where awareness is basically just noticing and being with what occurs. Mindfulness is like the gate keeper of our thoughts and this is what determines which ones are let in. Many thoughts come to the gate, but when one becomes mindful of them, through awareness it becomes apparent which ones are beneficial and which ones aren’t. The process between mindfulness and awareness can be likened to learning to ride a bicycle. In the beginning there’s much mindfulness of getting on the bike, keeping balanced, peddling, keeping an eye on the road ahead, and trying not to fall, but after about a week this turns to awareness and the mindfulness takes a back seat. It’s still there, but there’s no longer deliberate engagement, there doesn’t have to be. What happens next is “Look Ma, no hands” as riding the bike becomes second nature and is done without needing to think about it.
The deliberate engagement of mindfulness is used to develop discipline so awareness of what’s actually happening is seen. Mindfulness of whatever it is the focus is on, puts one in the present moment; you can’t be mindful of what’s happening right now in the past or future. This is what being mindful allows and the more this discipline is developed, the more awareness one has of the delusions that have been in control. Although certain truths (aha moments) have been revealed to me in the last nine years, they were always in the form of becoming aware of a lie that I had been attached. Secrets of the Universe I do not know, the lies that caused me to create my own suffering I do. It’s a process that started out as a mindfulness practice and has expanded to awareness aware of awareness and it’s in this space of awareness that one can say without thinking about it “Look Ma, no hands.”
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