Mindfulness: a multi-part definition, part 4

Saki Santorelli provides a more detailed definition of mindfulness elsewhere in Heal Thy Self, but for right now, I really like this one:

…a disciplined way of learning to pay attention to all that is arising within.  This is called mindfulness.

This definition is powerful because it so clearly focuses on the fact that our internal selves are constantly changing, and to be mindful is to start with that. Ultimately, and frequently, we lose self-awareness, but this provides us with the basis of practice.

Each time that we awaken to no longer being present ourselves or to another is, paradoxically, a moment of presence.  If we are willing to see the whole of our lives as practice, our awareness of the moments when we are not present, coupled with our intention to awaken, brings us into the present.  Given our penchant for absence, opportunities for practicing presence are abundant.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, and that can’t really be our goal, but more about that later.