The Limits of Mindfulness

What Is Mindfulness?

The most common version of Mindfulness Practice is Stillness Mindfulness, which is sitting still and releasing awareness of all that is going on in one’s life, surroundings, thoughts, emotions, and body. To sit still and hold one’s attention on a singular point of focus like a candle flame or the breath moving in and out of the nose.

Another Version is Active Mindfulness, of which Walking Meditation is an example. In this practice we drop all but the awareness of our surroundings and our interface with it. We walk, paying full attention to where our feet touch the ground, where the sun warms or wind cools our skin, and to the sounds and feeling presence of everything physically around us.

There is great value in cultivating these simple detached observation skills. Like with Walking Meditation one can also practice Mindfulness by being mindfully present in any activity they are engaged in, whether gardening, washing the dishes, or any other simple task. As in Stillness Mindfulness, in this type of Active or Engaged Mindfulness, we pay full attention to the task or activity in the present moment, to the exclusion of all else.

Once complete one-pointed or selfless focus is achieved through either version, we then have the option to shift our perception to a deeper part of our awareness, to the observer self, and from there, to watch without engaging the flow or arising of any thoughts and feelings within the personality – this takes much practice – and is what may be called Observer Mindfulness.

Therefore Mindfulness, whether Stillness, Active, or Observer form, could be described as a practice of limiting one’s awareness to the so-called here and now – to what you are doing or what is happening in the moment, and this alone – either physically via the five senses, or mentally via the detached observer self.

When Focus Becomes Limiting

At this juncture we should note that.…

• Mindfulness Meditation Practices become a limitation if one never progresses from them.
• What we are doing with, or what is happening within or surrounding our dense-physical body, is only a tiny fraction of what is truly present in any moment!

If our focus is on our dense-physical reality alone, whether bodily sensations or the thoughts chattering in our brains, this means we are actually excluding from our awareness everything that is happening or present within our etheric-physical, astral, and mental bodies. Certainly, we are actively blocking all awareness of our Soul and its vast consciousness – for all I have described is still only focused on and within the lower self and does not yet include any of the higher-vibrational relational causalities and interactions present in any moment. We are limiting our awareness to the smallest most concrete part of our self – if we are practising “correctly.” This is why Mindfulness Practice is only the beginning of the spiritual path, not the destination. Use Mindfulness to become relaxed, still, quiet within, yes. Use Mindfulness to train or cultivate one-pointed focus and sitting within the detached observer space, yes. But once you have skills with this, expand your awareness to include All that is present here and now.

Mindfulness is an essential practice to master at the start of the journey, but sadly, a long-term Mindfulness Practitioner is usually “mastering separatism” through limitation, and unless they grow beyond these practices, full enlightenment will evade them.

Mindfulness and Intuitive Insight

While Mindfulness alone does not create full enlightenment, it can, as a practice open the way, if utilised correctly – particularly Active or Engaged Mindfulness, as previously described.

The following instructions can truly take simple Mindfulness practice to the next level…
When practising Active Mindfulness, we should rest our awareness lightly on the task or activity, and not grip onto what we are doing tightly, heavily, or with seriousity. When we surrender to presence in simple tasks, our brain shifts from beta to alpha brainwaves, and in this alpha state we can more readily receive clear intuitive insights – but only if we grasp our task lightly within our awareness!

We do not want to get caught up in thoughts and thinking, but a gentle almost daydream-like presence with our task will allow space for intuitive insights, in the form of seed thoughts. It is important to acknowledge the seed, but not to engage and get caught up in concrete thought about it. We can unpack it later. Though sometimes we may need to pause our task and jot down the seed thought to remember it later – it is, afterall, an open door to the intuitive insight.

In this manner, our Active Mindfulness will have served its higher function – to open us to higher knowing.

From Mindfulness to the Divine Mind

By cultivating and seating our awareness within the detached observer state, and IF we shift our awareness from focusing downwards upon the Personality, to upwards into the Soul and beyond, then the foundation built from Mindfulness Practice will serve us well indeed. For we will have created a far greater degree of detachment combined with right orientation, which may allow us to see reality at the level of the Soul and above with greater objectivity and therefore accuracy.

Opening to the Soul, achieving Alignment and then Fusion, represents a higher degree of Enlightenment than that of a fully embodied Mindfulness Practitioner, as Soul Fusion creates a true Knower – one who can eventually understand or comprehend the Divine Mind.

Mindfulness is a tool of the way, not The Way itself.

To Presence
Azure Seer