Today we start the Learning to Practice Buddhism part of our course. As we say in our brochure "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get the same results".

Buddhist practice offers us the opportunity to realise our innate wish to be happy and fulfilled. Following on from last week we have chosen as the main topic for today's program the mindfulness component of our Happiness Map.

If there is a magic ingredient in the Buddhist Path then it would be mindfulness. Last week when we talked about the Happiness Map we said the underlying principle it is based on is that you can take charge of your mind.

Mindfulness is what makes this possible. We need to be able to recognise in real time what we are thinking, doing and saying if we hope to take charge of any of these components of our behaviour.

The following two quotes from Chogyam Trungpa's book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism will give you a taste of the flavour of what we mean by practicing mindfulness.

Both of these quotes should surprise us because they each say that within the ordinariness of our normal living, within the mundaneness of our daily activities, is the possibility of contentment, nourishment and joyfulness. Right in front of us in our simplest actions we can find peace and beauty.

The quality of attentiveness being described in the quotes is certainly different to our habitual way of doing things. This is a conscious observance of the nowness of living, a patient attention and an alertness, which comes from the effort to stay aware of the present moment.

According to Buddhism reality exists in the present instant. Reality is occurring second by second. You exist second by second. The past is gone and the future hasn't arrived. Only the present is in fact real. What you were one minute ago is gone completely. Just an ancestor! What you will be tomorrow we can't say with certainty.

Therefore if you wish to see what you really are you can only do it by looking at your experience in the present. If you want to take charge of your mind and your behaviour it can be done most effectively through your awareness of the present happenings.

Normally we don't live like this. We usually take our actions and reactions for granted and we operate mostly from our habit or our default settings. Our normal state from a Buddhist viewpoint is similar to living on automatic pilot. This state in Buddhism is likened to being asleep. Buddhism says the foundation of developing on the Buddhist Path is we have to wake ourselves up.

The more we train our attention to stay in the present, the more stable is our foundation for improving the health of our mind. Automatically our mind becomes brighter, more alert, more intelligent and more energetic - all from this simple process of being awake in the present.

Even as our body deteriorates through ageing as our mindfulness is improved by our practice the power of our mind can still be increased.

It is quite a radical change to how we live. We decide to be awake to our momentary experience of living. We train ourselves until it becomes our new habitual way of living. This is called the awakening mind in Buddhism and it is considered our most treasured possession because it builds and strengthens the very essence of our enlightenment.

So please be convinced the effort to become mindful is well worth it. This commitment to living with mindfulness is a commitment to your own wellbeing. Through your effort to become mindful you can eventually overcome every obstacle that can arise within your mind, you can eventually defeat every unwholesome state, every unwholesome action, every cause of unhappiness can be removed.

So how do we begin? It's not too difficult if you remember you only have to stay mindful one second at a time. Just what you are doing right now only. It's a little bit at a time practice - one second, one second, one second. Just like the meditation on the breath, we keep bringing our attention back to the present. We observe how usually the mind gives us a running commentary on anything that gets its attention. Then we get caught up in our thinking. Don't get caught up in all these stories our mind produces. In Buddhism this day dreaming and internal dialogue is called the "monkey mind".

Stop being interested in all the stories and internal commentary. Many of them are meaningless gibberish anyway. What do you think you mental chatter would look like if you wrote it all down? When you read the chatter back to yourself later do you think it would be very coherent? Do you think it would be worth the time it would take to read them?

When something happens we don't like we often dwell on that for sometime afterwards. We replay what happened over again and again in our head. We revisit our disturbance. This is a sure-fire way of prolonging our negative mental states and keeping ourselves annoyed.

When we notice our attention has strayed off the present or we are lost in our thoughts we let go of the thing we have been playing with and focus our attention back to what you are doing in the present.

So for this weeks teachings we can put this instruction into practice immediately, right now as we are listening. Practice being in the present now.

You sit as if in meditation, relaxed but with a gentle awareness of your body, with your mind contained in the volume of your body. You bring your mind home. Feel your body, feel your arms, your legs, your weight on the seat, relax any stress you are holding in your body. Be comfortable. As you hear me talking you still keep some of your attention relaxed in your body. Just listen gently with interest to what is being said.

As it turns out, even though your attention is not focused out here on me any more, you can still hear everything you heard before. You will find, over time, you hear more of what's being said when your mind is inside your body like this. This is because gradually your mind becomes quieter and more focused.

You can do this many times a day. Try it when you are driving your car, or travelling on a train, when you are watching TV or cooking, mowing the lawn, sweeping the floor, and so on. Washing the dishes is an excellent time to practice mindfulness because your body is active in a small area and generally there are not many other distractions.

Try 'washing the dishes meditation' at home. Move consciously, in a relaxed manner. Use care and alertness to put down the washed dishes quietly. At your work look for opportunities to develop awareness of your body both when sitting and when walking.

Just start applying it whenever you can. It is going to take some time to build up your mindfulness. Like anything else we try that is new. There is a learning curve and it does take time to get out of our habit of being unmindful. Just know that gradually week by week as you work at it your mindfulness will improve.

You can be mindful anywhere, any time, no matter what you are doing. It is practiced alongside every other practice, hand in hand with every other practice. You practice generosity and kindness with mindfulness. You practice doing good actions with mindfulness. You guard and protect your mind from generating negative states such as resentment or anger by using mindfulness. It is the practice which you can develop to be like a constant companion, at your side, protecting you, looking after you, helping you create benefits for your self and others through the recognition of what's really happening instant by instant.

Now you may see how the calmness and brightness we develop in meditation can be extended into our normal lives. We make an effort to keep our mindfulness after we end each meditation session.

We've probably given you enough reasons why your experience of living will feel and be better if you can train yourself to be mindful. You're only going to find out about it by doing it for yourself. You can't learn to ride a bike by reading about it. You can't know the taste of coke unless you drink it.

You really can't appreciate the value of mindfulness until you have tried it thoroughly for yourself. Don't expect too much too soon. Be patient, apply yourself gently minute by minute. If you train yourself this way one-day you will suddenly recognise something very liberating is happening.

May you practice and develop mindfulness in all your actions.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

1. Trungpa, Chogyam. 1973. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Clear Light Series. Published by Shambhala Publications, Inc. 1123 Spruce Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302., p.156, 157

2. Piyadassi, Mahathera. 1991. The Spectrum of Buddhism. Published by The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 11th Floor, 55, Hang Chow S. Rd., Sec 1, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.