The Miracle of Mindfulness
An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Written in 1975, The Miracle of Mindfulness is one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s earliest books. It was originally written as a long letter to one of his main staff members in South Vietnam—encouraging him during very challenging times to continue their work of “engaged Buddhism.” It’s beautifully written and packed with wisdom. Big Ideas we explore include what qualifies as a miracle (hint: it’s ALL a miracle), choosing to sit or stand but avoiding the wobble, how to balance on top of a bamboo pole and three questions to ponder.
Big Ideas
- Sit or StandPlease don’t wobble.
- What’s a MiracleHint: It’s ALL a miracle.
- Mindfulness MasteryStarts here.
- Negative Thoughts?Notice. Accept. Act. #repeat
- Bamboo PolesHow to balance on them.
- Three Questions+ Three answers.
“You might well ask: Then how are we to practice mindfulness?
My answer is: keep your attention focused on the work, be alert and ready to handle ably and intelligently any situation which may arise—this is mindfulness. There is no reason why mindfulness should be different from focusing all one’s attention on one’s work, to be alert and to be using one’s best judgment. During the moment one is consulting, resolving, and dealing with whatever arises, a calm heart and self-control are necessary if one is to obtain good results. Anyone can see that. If we are not in control of ourselves but instead let our impatience or anger interfere, then our work is no longer of any value.
Mindfulness is the miracle by which we master and restore ourselves. Consider, for example: a magician who cuts his body into many parts and places each part in a different region—hands in the south, arms in the east, legs in the north, and then by some miraculous power lets forth a cry which reassembles whole every part of his body. Mindfulness is like that—it is the miracle which can call back in a flash our dispersed mind and restore it to wholeness so that we can live each minute of life.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh from The Miracle of Mindfulness
Written in 1975, The Miracle of Mindfulness is one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s earliest books. (We’ve also covered Peace Is Every Step, Fear, and Silence.)
This book was originally written as a long letter to one of the main staff members of Hanh’s School of Youth for Social Service in South Vietnam in 1974—encouraging him during very challenging times to continue their work of “engaged Buddhism.”
At the time, Hanh was living in a monastery in France—in exile from Vietnam. As I read the book I was struck by the parallels between a few other books we’ve featured: Seneca wrote part of On the Shortness of Life while in exile from Rome; while James Stockdale wrote Courage Under Fire after spending years in a North Vietnamese prison. Although they played very different roles, each played those roles very, very well.
This beautiful little book is packed with Big Ideas. (Get a copy here.) I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!
Download MP3
Download PDFI’ll use the term ‘mindfulness’ to refer to keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality.
Get the BookSit or Stand. Don’t wobble. (Please.)
“If while washing the dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future—and we are incapable of actually living a minute of life.”
Mindfulness is all about “keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality.”
Fact is, if our mind wanders to whatever we might be doing after we wash the dishes, the odds are that our minds will wander to something else at that time and we’ll never *actually* live a minute of life.
Not good.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to practice being present. The most mundane activities (like washing the dishes) often provide us the best litmus test for how our minds are doing along with the best practice ground for training our minds to be present.
The next time you’re washing the dishes, see if you can slow down for a second and ACTUALLY be there washing the dishes. Feel the water, the soap, etc. Be present.
Then take that same mindfulness with you to your next conversation. Put the smartphone in airplane mode and out of sight and BE THERE—truly listening to the person without thinking about what you’ll say or do next.
Repeat throughout the day.
Enter: Mindfulness.
P.S. Here’s how Eknath Easwaran puts it in Take Time for Your Life: “Trying to do many things at once means doing nothing well. As the Buddha says, ‘When you are walking, walk. When you are sitting, sit. Don’t wobble.’”
<— Sit. Or stand. No wobbling!!!
What’s a Miracle? (Hint: It’s All a miracle.)
“I like to walk alone on country paths, rice plants and wild grasses on both sides, putting each foot down on the earth in mindfulness, knowing that I walk on the wondrous earth. In such moments, existence is a miraculous and mysterious reality. People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”
So, what’s a miracle?
Walking on water? Walking on thin air?
How about simply walking on earth?
Or, for that matter, how about driving in your car at 65 miles per hour on the freeway? Or flying, as Louis CK so eloquently and hilariously says, when we get to “partake in the miracle of human flight!” Or, how about holding a piece of plastic in your hands and somehow having instant access to an *astonishing* amount of information and people around the world.
We take these MIRACLES for granted, but step back and think about it for a second.
Those things are truly, absolutely astonishing. They’re miracles.
As Einstein said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Life is amazing. All is a miracle.
Let’s choose to live that way.
P.S. Maslow tells us: “Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering.”
Which is why GRATITUDE is such a powerful practice and a hallmark of healthy, flourishing, actualizing human beings.
Take a moment to look around you right now and look at all the stuff in your life that you probably take for granted 99% of the time. Feel how awesome each thing is.
As I type this I glanced out my office window to catch the amazing colors of a beautiful sunrise. Yep. Miracle. I’m typing this on a machine that didn’t exist a couple decades ago powered by electricity that wasn’t harnessed a couple centuries ago.
Miracles abound. We just need to open our eyes and hearts to see them. Let’s.
P.P.S. The Tools guys have one of the coolest ways to harness gratitude. They call it “Grateful flow.” It’s used to combat depression, overwhelming thoughts or other feelings of ick sauce. It’s really easy to practice. Just look up and around and feel appreciation for all the little things.
Want to Master Your Mind(fulness)? Start Here.
“Your breath should be light, even, and flowing, like a thin stream of water running through the sand. Your breath should be very quiet, so quiet that a person sitting next to you cannot hear it. Your breathing should flow gracefully, like a river, like a watersnake crossing the water, not like a chain of rugged mountains or the gallop of a horse. To master our breath is to be in control of our bodies and minds. Each time we find ourselves dispersed and find it difficult to gain control of ourselves by different means, the method of watching the breath should always be used.”
Want to master your mind? (And therefore your mindfulness?)
Start with your breath.
A.L.L. the great teachers tell us this. Whether it’s “mindfulness” teachers or Navy SEALs or gold-medal winning Olympians, all of them tell us that being mindfully and powerfully present starts with a mindful breath.
Hanh gives us a bunch of breathing exercises + mindfulness practices in the book. I like this one.
Imagine your breath: light, even, and flowing gracefully, like a river.
Now take a few of those graceful breaths.
Do it with a half smile.
Feel the joy of presence.
(And… Do this the next time you find yourself losing your presence. Simply noticing that we’re off and remembering how to gracefully regain our equanimity is the most powerful step in our mindfulness practice. :)
Negative Thoughts? Notice, Accept, Act. #Repeat
“During meditation, various feelings and thoughts may arise. If you don’t practice mindfulness of the breath, these thoughts will soon lure you away from mindfulness. But the breath isn’t simply a means by which to chase away such thoughts and feelings. Breath remains the vehicle to unite body and mind and to open the gate to wisdom. When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn’t to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence. For example, when a feeling of sadness arises, immediately recognize it: ‘A feeling of sadness has just arisen in me.’ If the feeling of sadness continues, continue to recognize ‘A feeling of sadness is still in me.’ If there is a thought like, ‘It’s late but the neighbors are sure making a lot of noise,’ recognize that the thought has arisen. If the thought continues to exist, continue to recognize it. If a different feeling or thought arises, recognize it in the same manner. The essential thing is not let any feeling or thought arise without recognizing it in mindfulness, like a palace guard who is aware of every face that passes through the front door.”
So, what do we do with the negative stuff that arises in our meditation and in our lives?
We bring mindfulness to it, of course. :)
I’m reminded of one of my new favorite things: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. More on that in a moment.
First, the palace guard metaphor reminds me of Matthieu Ricard’s wisdom in Why Meditate? where he tells us being mindful is kinda like keeping an eye on a pickpocket (+ fighting fires).
Ricard tells us: “If every time a powerful emotion arises you learn to deal with it intelligently, not only will you master the art of liberating emotions at the moment they appear, but you will also erode the very tendencies that cause the emotions to arise. In this way, your character traits and your way of being will gradually be transformed.
This method might seem difficult at the beginning, especially in the heat of the moment, but with practice you will gradually get used to it. When anger or any other afflictive emotion begins to hatch in your mind, you will be able to identify it on the spot and be able to deal with it before it gets out of hand. It’s a little like knowing the identity of a pickpocket: even if he mingles with the crowd, you can spot him immediately and keep your eye on him so that he won’t be able to steal your wallet.
Thus, by becoming more and more familiar with the mechanisms of the mind and by cultivating mindfulness, you will reach the point where you no longer let sparks of nascent emotions turn into forest fires that can destroy your own happiness and that of others.”
So, step one in mindfulness: Notice the negativity as it arises. Be like that palace guard. Remember the pickpocket.
Now for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It’s basically a super practical, therapeutic mindfulness. A sort of mindfulness meets cognitive behavioral therapy.
We covered wisdom on this approach (known as ACT and pronounced like the word “act”) in our Notes on Russ Harris’s great books The Confidence Gap and The Happiness Trap. And, we talked about it in depth in Conquering Perfectionism 101. Check those out for more.
For now, let’s know (!) that the first step to optimally dealing with our negative thoughts and feelings is not to try to get rid of them per se. It’s to ACCEPT them. Simply stepping back in our minds, seeing that we’re having a negative thought, defusing from it as we label it “stress” or “fill-in-the-blank-for-your-negative-experience” goes a LONG way in gracefully dealing with it.
But, we don’t stop there.
With that spacious, mindful awareness of what’s going on, we’re not driven by the negativity. Nor do we ignore it. We acknowledge it. THEN we remind ourselves of what’s important to us—our most cherished values, who we aspire to be. And then, most importantly (!), we ACT in a manner consistent with our highest ideals.
Which, Russ tells us = “Mindfulness + Values + Action = Psychological Flexibility.”
That’s a winning formula.
Balancing On Top of a Bamboo Pole
“Another time the Buddha recounted a story which made me suddenly see the supreme importance of practicing mindfulness of one’s own self—that is, to protect and care for one’s self, not being preoccupied about the way others look after themselves, a habit of mind which gives rise to resentment and anxiety. The Buddha said, ‘There once were a couple of acrobats. The teacher was a poor widower and the student was a small girl named Meda. The two of them performed in the streets to earn enough to eat. They used a tall bamboo pole which the teacher balanced on the top of his head while the little girl slowly climbed to the top. There she remained while the teacher continued to walk along the ground.
‘Both of them had to devote all their attention to maintain perfect balance and to prevent any accidents from occurring. One day the teacher instructed the pupil: ‘Listen, Meda, I will watch you and you watch me, so that we can help each other maintain concentration and balance and prevent an accident. Then we’ll be sure to earn enough to eat.’ But the little girl was wise and answered, ‘Dear master, I think it would be better for each of us to watch oneself. To look after oneself means to look after both of us. That way I am sure we will avoid any accidents and will earn enough to eat.’ The Buddha said: ‘The child spoke correctly.’”
Imagine yourself with that bamboo pole. You can choose to be either the teacher holding the pole or the little student balancing on the top. (Your call. :)
Got the image in your head? Fantastic. Now, if you want to perform at your best (and not fall!), where should you focus? On what YOU are doing or on what your partner is doing?
Hmmmmm…
Of course, we’d be wise to focus on what WE are doing, eh?
Well, guess what? Same thing (of course!) with our lives.
Yet… For some odd reason, it’s *way* easier to focus on everyone else’s shortcomings and tell everyone else what to do than it is to focus on how we can optimize.
Anthony de Mello playfully captures this same truth in Awareness where he tells us: “Imagine a patient who goes to a doctor and tells him what he is suffering from. The doctor says, ‘Very well, I’ve understood your symptoms. Do you know what I will do? I will prescribe a medicine for your neighbor!’ The patient replies, ‘Thank you very much, Doctor, that makes me feel much better.’ Isn’t that absurd? But that’s what we all do. The person who is asleep always thinks he’ll feel better if somebody else changes. You’re suffering because you are asleep, but you’re thinking, ‘How wonderful life would be if somebody else would change. How wonderful life would be if my neighbor changed, my wife changed, my boss changed.’”
Hanh also tells us: “Don’t worry if those around you aren’t doing their best. Just worry about how you can make yourself worthy. Doing your best is the surest way to remind those around you to do their best.”
So…. Are YOU focusing on how your partner can improve?
Take a moment to think about one of the things you might be telling others they need to improve. Imagine wagging a finger at them, “You need to do this, this and this!!” Then… Count how many fingers are pointing back at YOU (should be three! :) and get to work.
Do your best. It’s the surest way to remind (and inspire!) those around you to do their best.
P.S. Very important Optimizer safety reminder: The next time you are balancing on top of a tall bamboo pole, do NOT (I repeat, DO NOT!) look at what the other person is doing. Focus on what *you’re* doing. That is all.
The 3 Questions
“Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.
Tolstoy’s story is like story out of scripture: it doesn’t fall short of any sacred text. We talk about social service, service to the people, service to humanity, service to others who are far away, helping to bring peace to the world—but often we forget that it is the very people around us that we must live for first of all. If you cannot serve your wife or husband or child or parent—how are you going to serve society? If you cannot make your own child happy, how do you expect to be able to make anyone else happy? If all our friends in the peace movement or of service communities of any kind do not love and help one another, whom can we love and help?”
Hanh recounts a beautiful Tolstoy story in which a ruler wants to know the answer to three questions: What is the best time to do each thing? Who are the most important people to work with? What is the most important thing to do at all times?
The answers? Now is the best time. The person you are with is the best one to work with. Doing what you can to make that person happy is the most important thing to do at all times.
We may have big visions of how we want to change the world but it all (always!) starts with those three things: this moment + this person + love.
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