(November 28, 2016 at 11:57 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: Oh I absolutely know what mindfulness is... I just think that everyone is just lucky when they do it right. I think that the only way for it to be a skill is for us to consciously think something but that's the opposite of mindfulness. Thinking is purely automatic unless it's strained.
I get lost in a negative train of thought... I can notice that... but I can't stop the negative train merely by observing it. Either as I observe it the negative thoughts stop or they don't. And if I intervene with a conscious thought that's not mindfulness.
Mindfulness is indeed, observing thoughts without judgement. But that either happens or it doesn't. Being aware of my judgements is just being aware of them.
TL;DR: we either unluckily observe a negative train of thought without judgement and it continues or we get lucky and it ends.
Well for arguments sake say you were to count your breaths in meditation, the ideal situation would be to have never lost count because you only lose count when you get too drawn into a distraction such as a train of thought. So the ideal would be to have maintained awareness of your breath for the whole thing without getting sucked in to the passing thoughts, and 'clinging/attaching' to them. In practice it's not that easy and your mind will wander... you will lose count figuratively or literally if you actually are counting... but when that happens you just bring your focus back to your breath when you snap out of the train of thought. To dwell on that as the failure would be the only real failure, because that's getting dragged into another train of thought, but if you just carry on regardless of that interruption, then that's where the 'success' lies. So as long as you keep bringing your attention back to your breath no matter how many times you get sucked in to a distraction, then you can't 'fail'. And as with any skill, practice makes perfect so the more you meditate the better you get at it... the less times you'll 'lose count' because it develops your concentration and ability to let go... so things that once sucked you in, no longer do. That's why it's not really helpful to think of it in terms of success and failure... everyone's mind wanders... everyone loses count... but if you just carry on regardless of that, then the more you practice, the less that will happen in the future.
