Ajahn Brahm - Kindfulness

Kindfulness

mindfulness is not enough

WHEN WE ADD KINDNESS TO MINDFULNESS WE GET KINDFULNESS, a new approach to meditation. Kindfulness is the cause of relaxation. It brings ease to the body, to the mind, and to the world. Kindfulness allows healing to happen. So dont just be mindful, be kindful!

AJAHN BRAHM is the abbot and spiritual director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. He is the bestselling author of Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? and Dont Worry, Be Grumpy.

Praise for AJAHN BRAHM

The irrepressible Ajahn Brahm gently challenges our conventional views, giving us a fresh perspective imbued with wisdom and compassion.

Toni Bernhard, author of How to Be Sick

Brimming with humor, humanity, and good will.

Spirituality & Practice

Funny, endearing, and infused with wisdom.

Arnie Kozak, author of Mindfulness A to Z

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

AN ANCIENT TEACHING SAYS that by looking after oneself, one looks after others and by looking after others, one looks after oneself. Kindfulness, the subject of this small book, is a wonderful way to bring this truth into our lives.

Through stories and direct instruction, Ill introduce you to kindfulness and teach you a powerful method of being kindfully present to what I call the beautiful breath. This practice unfolds gradually over time, and Ill talk in detail about each of the five stages through which that happens and the subtle ways we can practice awareness more and more kindfully in each stage. Meeting the beautiful breath with a spirit of loving presence is a part of practicing kindfulness that strengthens our ability to look after ourselves and by kind-fully looking after our own minds, we become more able to become a kindful force for good in the world.

Then, in the next part of this book, well turn our attention to kindful loving, the practice of opening wide the doors to our hearts. This practice also unfolds in five stages, and Ill offer guidance for each one, as we gradually generate kindfulness in our hearts and cultivate an ability to let it radiate, outward and unbounded, over the entire world. Kindful loving is a powerful way to care for others and Im certain youll discover for yourself that through kindfully caring for others, your own life will become more and more wonderful, more and more beautiful.

Ajahn Brahm

Kindfulness

Dont Just Be Mindful, Be Kindful

A WEALTHY WOMAN went to her meditation class one evening. Many of her neighbors had been robbed, so she told the guard at the gate to her mansion to be alert and mindful at all times.

When she returned, she discovered that her mansion had been robbed. She scolded her guard, I told you to be mindful of burglars. You have failed me.

But I was mindful, maam, replied the guard. I saw the burglars going into your mansion, and I noted, Burglar going in. Burglar going in. Then I saw them coming out with all your jewelry, and I mindfully noted Jewelry going out. Jewelry going out. Then I saw them going in again and taking out your safe, and I mindfully noted again, Safe being stolen. Safe being stolen. I was mindful, maam.

Obviously,
mindfulness is not enough!

Had the guard been kind to his employer as well as mindful, he would have called the police. When we add kindness to mindfulness we get kindfulness.

A few years ago I had food poisoning. Monks of my tradition depend on almsfood, offered every day by our lay supporters. We never really know what we are eating, and we often put into our mouths something the stomach later has an argument with. An occasional stomachache is an occupational hazard for monks. But this time, it was far worse than a bout of indigestion. This was the agonizing cramps of food poisoning.

I took the opportunity to tap into the power of kindfulness.

I resisted the natural tendency to escape from the pain and felt the sensation as fully as I could. This is mindfulness experiencing the feeling in the moment, as clearly as possible, without reacting. Then I added kindness. I opened the door of my heart to the pain, respecting it with emotional warmth. The mindfulness provided me with feedback. I noticed that my intestines had relaxed a little because of the kindness, and the pain was slightly less. So I continued with the kindfulness. Little by little, the pain decreased as the kindness did its job of relaxing the digestive tract. After only twenty minutes, the pain had gone, totally. I was as healthy and relaxed as if the food poisoning had never occurred.

Some may imagine there were other factors involved in my recovery but, personally, I know there werent. I know the key ingredient was kindfulness. I took no medication, no water, no massage it was the therapy of kindfulness, pure and simple. Of course, I had been training in this for over forty years which may be why it was so effective. The cramps hurt like hell and made me double up in agony but my suffering was countered by full-on kindfulness. I have no idea what happened to the bacteria that are the cause of food poisoning, but I didnt worry about that. The pain had gone completely. This is but one personal example of the power of kindfulness.

Kindfulness is the cause of relaxation.
It brings ease to the body,
to the mind, and to the world.
Kindfulness allows healing to happen.
Dont just be mindful, be kindful.

Kindfulness and Stillness

MANY PEOPLE TRY to practice meditation these days. Their biggest problem is that they cannot keep their mind still. No matter how hard they try, they are unable to stop thinking. Why? Let me tell you a story that may illuminate this.

A woman received a call one afternoon, Hi, this is C.F. Are you free this afternoon for a cup of coffee?

Sure, the woman replied.

Good, continued C.F. We will go that coffee shop that I like, not the one that you prefer. You will have a short black, not one of those high-cholesterol lattes that I know you like. You will have a blueberry muffin, just like me, not one of those silly pastries that I have seen you eat so often. We will sit in a quiet corner because that is where I want to sit, not out on the street where you always go. Then we will discuss politics, which is what I like to talk about, not that spiritual mumbo jumbo that you always twitter on about. Lastly, we will stay for sixty minutes, not fifty minutes nor seventy minutes, just exactly one hour, because that is how long I want to stay.