05 Nov Function of everyday practice

So, one of the things I appreciate highly with moving in the realm of teaching and sharing the knowledge transmitted to me by my teachers, is the constant dynamic with the teachings, as students and my teachers make me intrigued and curious to keep up studying, exploring and practicing. A recent student question made me reflect on following; the plausible question was “Could practicing mindfulness give the aftertaste of ‘good girl-syndrome’, these practices or skill becoming yet another thing to be good at?” Great question!

I think that with all meditative practices, you will meet your own demons (meaning less constructive sides of patterns and habitual behavior, being it in thoughts or feelings), and that this is an effect of the practice itself. As you turn inwards, you incline to connect with yourself, and thus in how you relate to whatever it is that you come in contact with. This content, material, or topics (call it what you want), is very valuable in the process of selv-exploration towards transcendence of the mind. Or freeing yourself from the conditioning of your mind, moksha.

So the rationale behind mindfulness based practices and similar, are not getting better at as an aim in itself. Its rather getting to know something about. 

In relation to this, a post at Elephant Journal with similar topic: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/01/5-ways-to-be-happier-less-depressed-through-buddhism/

Enjoy!