Mindfulness of causes and conditions

Mindfulness is about clearly seeing causes and conditions of our suffering and happiness. It is understanding the "whole" with its breadth and depth, just at it is — without hiding or making-up our own convenient stories. When we ignore any part of the "whole", we end-up creating many disconnected and conflicting fragments — destroying harmony and peace.

Going beyond the symptoms and understanding the root cause

We tend to dwell on the symptoms superficially, whereas the root cause may be buried many layers deep in a complex and convoluted manner. Though it is important to soothe the symptoms, if we fail to address the root cause, we may get stuck in a long cycle of struggles. In many cases, we continue to feed the root cause without clear awareness while fighting with the symptoms. Though we may say that we want peace and happiness, yet we are heavily invested in ego-building. In meditation, people want to stop their compulsive thinking, yet they continue to feed them by heavily investing in their causes.

Recognizing both the gratification and danger

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else." – Emerson. Everything in life comes at a cost. Even seemingly a trivial thing may come at a huge cost. When we don't properly recognize and acknowledge the dangerous negative consequences, we become trapped in their short-term gratifications. So Buddha advises us to contemplate on both the gratification and danger (positives and negatives) of everything. This is not about exaggerating or down-playing anything for our own convenience based on our fears or opinions, but seeing things really as they are.

Cultivating proper conditions

Our sense of control is mostly an illusion. In reality, we simply become a product of our conditions. Usually we are conditioned by our genes and everything around us. Instead of simply falling for this mindless trap, with mindfulness we can rise above and cultivate better conditions: such as eating mindfully moderate and healthy; regular simple and moderate exercise; everyday meditation practice; taking good rest. Cultivating proper conditions gives us a solid foundation and without it whatever we build will eventually fall apart sooner or later. We may tend to focus on what we consider as big things in life, yet our well-being depends on the foundation of basic, everyday aspects of life.

Managing stress skillfully

Our success in personal and work life heavily depends on this one factor. Failure to manage stress skillfully leads to lifelong health and other problems. When work gets busy and life gets messy, we tend to fall into many addictive and unskillful behaviors. Just taking yearly vacation may not be enough; the most effective solution is to take many micro-breaks and give ourselves a breathing-space throughout the day to relax our body and mind. If we continue to fail to manage stress, perhaps it is better to take a step back and understand the root causes behind our stress.

CK. Kamaraj

17 February 2022

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