THE WAY OF MINDFULNESS

This world is complex with its unlimited seductive distractions of consumption and entertainment. Humanity is hard-wired to the noisy external and we have largely lost the ability to track the internal. If we surround ourselves long enough with simple silence, we can experience spaciousness as an antidote to a chaotic world. Space itself is a no-thing container that at first may feel empty, lacking direction or even boring. And silence may be experienced as the loudest noise and one of the first scary things we encounter when stepping on the path. But this spaciousness is the superpower, the key to awakening the dormant potential that is and has always been there waiting, calling you home to source, to your true nature. 

Mindfulness is a constant remembering. 

In 4WTF Mindfulness offerings, we train ourselves through the art of meditation and mindfulness in order for the ego to find its rightful place. Ego is the culturally conditioned part of ourselves that largely makes up the personality, behaviours and the identifications we take ourselves to be. It is the mask we each wear and all the things that go into building the structure of “ME.” Upholding this structure is effort-ing galore!

Let’s face it, Buddha was right, life is full of struggle. So how do we dance with and through the challenge? 

In Mindfulness practice we learn to respond to life with clarity instead of reactivity. We train how to BE in the sensate body-breath, how to BE with thoughts and emotions, how to BE in the moment. We use visualization, mantras, archetype practice and mindfulness meditations. Eventually all techniques are dropped. Ultimately, meditation is a deep let-go. We transcend the mind and allow Being and Spaciousness to sit in its’ place. 

4WTF Mindfulness offerings help us pay attention to the way we do things while working, washing dishes, making love or having a conversation. Mindfulness cultivates the ability to do things knowing that you’re doing them. Knowing what’s going on externally and internally, simultaneously, allows us to use the mind to focus and calm, cultivating the ability to become self-aware. 

Where attention goes, energy flows. 

With consistent practice we are able to move in and out of the mind fluidly, noticing the inner dialogue, creating a calm vessel and a body at ease without agitation. There is a feeling of unitive expansion. Internal self-talk slows down significantly. This is the beginning of freedom. 

Why hold on to the past when the future is wide open? 

Presence is the ultimate state of Being. When we are no longer living from the past or tripping about the future, we attain a heightened sense of the present moment. We move beyond trying to manipulate it, control or judge it. Presence brings an acceptance of whatever is arising in consciousness. In its deepest meaning, it is an awareness and recognition of your own true nature. It is bliss, unity and love.