mindfulness

I'm sure most of us spiritual people have heard about being mindful. For the most part, it just entails being mindful of your body, mind and being (spirit)... but what does that really mean?

For mindfulness of your body, it basically just entails, getting into your body, being mindful of movement, of what you're doing, of how efficient you can do your action, no matter how monotonous it may be. I like saying (in the case of breath mindfulness); that every breath is different.

For mindfulness of your mind, it's about seeing right view, or correcting bad thoughts with labeling that thought as "wrong view". It's about growing more mature in thought, more subtle and real in the nature of your thought. I think of being enlightened as being "super normal"; emphasis on the normal part.

As for spirit; you gotta follow the middle path, being balanced in the material and spiritual world. I'd say, all self inquiry on love, brings you closer to and more mindful of unconditional love and spirit (not a love anyway kind of love, but a love no matter what kind of love).

I've felt gods love before as a formless, but form including kind of love. When your love deepens, it gets away from the pushing things away\pitying kind of love, and becomes more entrenched in facing what's in this moment, here and now. It's like truly unconditional love (even for the moment; and unconditional moment).

A Light Unto Yourself

Being a light unto yourself is a must for properly handling problems. It's much better to come to terms with a problem, to the best of your ability, before sharing wisdom with other people. Let's take anger per say. In most cases, I'd say, anger is just a lack of understanding. Instead of reacting and getting all angry, it's great to take a deep breath, clear your mind, think of the problem until you've got a handle on it. Until you've accepted the problem, have a certain level of understanding for it, and if you're able to, have unconditional love for that person.

To me, love and wisdom go together. Wisdom is like, a step above understanding. Understanding is like seeing where the attachments are in a person, the attachments that would make them act out the way they do. Wisdom is like seeing the person behind that all, and loving there attachments out of them. It's about being humble for yourself and others; understanding that people are prone to error. Not coloring people; not holding on to your own attachments and views of a person, is a great practice to get to the bottom of a problem. In other words; again, being a light unto yourself.

Acceptance, Understanding, Wisdom and Compassion

The following, is a basic method to handle karma in oneself and others in the world. We'll start with two styles of acceptance that I have thought of.

Acceptance #1
This style of acceptance, deals with acceptance with right view of what you're thinking of. It can simply be that this thing is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. It's basically, boxing things in in a natural way.

Acceptance #2
This second style of acceptance, is way more general. Instead of boxing, lets say suffering, as a bad thing, just accept it, almost neutrally, knowing that even bad things can bring good into your life. Bad things in your life can bring you to great places, great paths, to grow in wisdom, relate more with those who suffer and grow in compassion. It's just a way positive outlook on life. One example of this, that I have done; someone who was harassing me, I treated this person as my guru. I thought, what is this person showing me that I can learn about myself. So instead of seeing the situation as completely a bad thing, I saw it as something to grow from.

Understanding
After accepting what suffering or bad karma there is in yours or somebody elses life, understanding of it is a great next step. See what sort of attachments are in you or the other persons life. As attachments, I mean, what is this person holding onto that causes them to act in whatever unruly or negative manner. This, is understanding. I consider this also, planting seeds of understanding which sprout into wisdom and compassion.

Wisdom and compassion
Once you have come to terms with the problem, and have brought as much understanding to it as you can, wisdom and compassion should be almost natural. With wisdom and love comes forgiveness. Forgiveness of oneself, or forgiveness of another. It ties well into humbleness. Knowing that you can make mistakes and so can the other. Like they say in the bible; you're born into sin; born a sinner.