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An evening in the bookstore spent reading books on meditation will almost certainly include the word mindfulness. It has become one of the most widely used terms in the West to define the meditative mentality. The term applies to specific types of meditation and also to a values-based attention to what is happening, both within oneself and in the surroundings. In my terms, it arises from the "Learning" (Number Two) intention, the one that actively intends to understand what is.

Mindfulness, like concentration, is both a characteristic of practice and the fruit of practice. Whereas concentration refers to a keen, penetrating awareness of a single chosen object (and thrives on the Number One intention) mindfulness refers to a fluid, open awareness of the many objects and conditions that present themselves in the "here and now." All forms of awareness must filter and select in order to remain coherent. Mindful awareness filters and selects based on consciously chosen values.

This kind of attention is important to any journey of self-discovery and growth. The value of living mindfully is so obvious it almost hurts to restate it, yet we seem to need reminders of it every day. This need has led to the development of formal mindfulness practices. Whether reciting a scripture or washing a breakfast bowl, one aims at that which is true and present and important, here and now.

Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971), one of the foremost modern teachers of meditation in the Zen tradition, said we usually run around trying to catch two birds with one stone and, not concentrating on any one thing, catch nothing at all. To fix that, he says, we must avoid attachment to actions, and when we act, do it with the entire body and mind. "You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely" (Suzuki 1970:62).

This "burning yourself completely" often means focusing better on the physical aspects of whatever you happen to be doing, such as washing a bowl in the sink. A mindfulness practice would ask us to put full attention on the bowl, the oatmeal particles stuck to it, the smell of the soap, etc. That is a practice. But the state of being mindful, as opposed to a practice to achieve that state, opens several layers of awareness at once. Attention only to the physical events misses the values and the meaning that are also present. Meaning lies a layer or two deeper than the soap and oatmeal. Living mindfully extends beyond the actions a video camera would record; it embraces subtle, private domains of intention, desire, values, and opinions and subtle public domains of social relationships, priorities, and ethics.

I like to illustrate the difference between practicing mindfulness and being mindful with two contrasting scenes. Picture two people trying to do the right thing. One is a monk washing his breakfast bowl silently in the wood stove-heated water in a rustic kitchen in a snowy mountain monastery. He’s trying to think of nothing but removing the remnants of oatmeal from the bowl. The second is a mother in a clean, suburban kitchen washing her child’s plastic bowl. As she washes the bowl, she is thinking about her neighbor’s daughter’s marital problems.

Which of these people is doing a mindfulness practice? Of course, it’s the monk; the mother’s mind is wandering next-door, poking into her neighbor’s soap opera. But which is being more mindful? To answer that, we need to look in a layer, beyond the video cameras. Let’s peek in there...