The Responsibility of Mindfulness

Mindfulness has been a blessing in my life. It has allowed me to experience my life first hand. I am not a spectator living my life through the experiences of others. Mindfulness allows me to see where I was once blind. After a lifetime of being a struggling vegetarian, maintaining the discipline of my diet has become effortless effort because of mindfulness.

In life nothing is free and mindfulness comes with baggage that must be dealt with. Once a veil has been lifted how do you look at people the same way without anger and frustration? Everyone has their own journey and we can’t impose our path upon others. It can be easy to lose sight of that fact and just polarize.

Mindfulness is a practice and as such, it requires effort and discipline. For sanity’s sake, it is important to stay compassionate and communicative.

“Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)