Reference: The 12 Aspects of Mindfulness
Mindfulness provides the discipline for looking and contemplation.
You may do this exercise while sipping coffee in a café, or strolling along a river. You may even find a place where you can sit comfortably for a while without being disturbed. Then patiently observe the world go by.
When mindfulness is practiced, thinking becomes contemplation. Problems are solved by looking at them closely and recognizing the relationships among what is there. Nothing needs to be figured out. Let non-judgmental observation provide accurate input. Let free association provide the uninhibited awareness of existing relationships.
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MINDFULNESS 11: Contemplate thoughtfully.
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Observe as usual. Notice the environment and other people.
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Apply the aspects of mindfulness that you have learned so far.
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Observe physical and mental objects, while sitting or walking, with eyes open or closed.
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When you perceive something amiss become very alert. This may be the case despite the explanations provided. Something may still appear to be inconsistent and incoherent. See Inconsistency in KHTK.
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Look more closely around the area that seems out of place.
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Look at the relationships among what is there.
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Follow the trail of what continues to be puzzling.
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Exhaust all such trails until the missing piece is observed.
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The trail may take you to some childhood question that never got answered, or to some confusion in school that never got resolved.
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The trail may also take you to some traumatic incident that you feel emotional about.
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Look at those questions, confusions and emotions while applying all aspects of mindfulness.
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Consult references from books and Internet, which are applicable to those areas as necessary.
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Follow through to the end of trails of what does not make sense.
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Expand your span of attention and let the perceptions pour in.
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Let the realizations present themselves to you without you making effort.
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Use your own judgment as to when to end a session.
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Develop this exercise to a point where you may execute it even while interacting socially with others. Keep following patiently the trail of what does not make sense. Many things may come up naturally to be scrutinized. Simply observe them and become aware of them without effort.
Comments
I find the following observation very interesting. It was made by Hubbard of Scientology. See KHTK 3A: ATTENTION: INTRODUCTION
“Attention is aberrated by becoming unfixed and sweeping at random or becoming too fixed without sweeping.” ~ L. Ron Hubbard
Attention helps us become aware of things. Normally we can freely direct our attention and put it wherever we want. But when we cannot do so, something is obviously amiss. This gives us a valuable tool for discovery.
Pursue non-optimum attention to discover what is amiss.
In other words, look more closely at the area that is causing the attention to become fixed and/or dispersed. This is the basic idea underlying the concept of “inconsistency” in KHTK.
As you become aware of the reason underlying some inconsistency, your attention gets freed up and returns to your control.
INCONSISTENCY = Something that fixates or disperses one’s attention.
Scientology is such an area for the participants of this blog. Critics of Scientology finds something amiss with Scientology. Proponents of Scientology like to defend and justify those things amiss in Scientology because, otherwise, it shakes their stable data.
To get one’s stable data shaken is painful for anybody. A person will give up an aberrated stable datum only when he finds a better stable datum.
KHTK is an attempt to provide a better stable data for those things that are amiss in Scientology.
Mindfulness is something that is amiss in Scientology.
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Mindfulness is something that is amiss in Scientology.
Ironically, I was introduced to mindfulness on the TR0 drill of Scientology. But then Scientology went on a tangent from there.
Real communication is possible only when mindfulness is there. That means the following points are in:
1. Observe without getting influenced by your expectations and desire for answers.
2. Observe things as they are, without assuming anything.
3. If something is missing do not imagine something else in its place.
4. If something does not make sense then do not explain it away.
5. Use physical senses as well as mental sense to observe.
6. Let the mind un-stack itself.
7. Experience fully what is there.
8. Do not suppress anything.
9. Associate data freely.
10. Do not get hung up on name and form.
11. Contemplate thoughtfully.
12. Let it all be effortless.
All problems seems to start in Scientology with communication without mindfulness.
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Scientology provides lots of “stable data” that helps restrain confusion in a person’s mind. The stable data does not have to be correct to restrain confusion. But it then produces beliefs that may not be consistent with reality.
So a common Scientologist is one whose confusions are restrained by s
Scientology data. Those confusions are not gone. They are still there. They simply exist in a restained condition.
A Scientologist is afraid of being overwhelmed once again by his confusion if he lets Scientology stable data go. So he is strongly attached to Scientology.
The only solution would then be to somehow handle a person’s confusion while letting him hold on to Scientology data. This is a tall order. But it may be accomplished by the person himself if he starts to practice mindfulness.
Per KHTK 3B: ATTENTION: THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
To free up attention that is fixed, one should look closely at the area of fixation to discover what has been added that should not be there.
To free up attention that is dispersed and hard to focus, one should look closely at the area of dispersal to discover what is missing that should be part of the scene.
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Per KHTK 3C: ATTENTION: THE MISSING FACTOR
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The following steps may help you notice what may be missing.
(1) Look broadly at an area.
(2) Look at the purpose of that area.
(3) Visualize the ideal scene when the purpose is being followed.
(4) Compare what is actually there to that ideal scene.
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See the summation in TRAINING: Attention and Mindfulness.
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Per KHTK 3D: ATTENTION: THE MIND
It requires all available attention to carefully follow the trail of non-optimum attention inside the mind. Therefore, it is important to have one’s attention optimum with respect to the physical environment before taking a deep look at the mind.
If you find that it is getting uncomfortable to look at the mind, then step back and look at the physical environment until the attention is optimum. Then you may go back to looking at the mind.