Vinaire's Blog

Please refer to The 12 Aspects of Mindfulness.

To be mindful is to look attentively, to observe carefully, and to contemplate thoughtfully. The activity of mindfulness may be described as follows:

1. Look attentively at what is right there in front of you, physically or mentally.

   If there are many things in front of you, then start with the first thing that your attention goes to. Then look at the next thing, to which the attention goes naturally, and so on. If there are many issues you are concerned with, then start with the issue uppermost in your mind, then the next issue in the queue, and so on. Do not speculate. Do not go digging into the mind. Keep looking patiently at what comes up naturally to be scrutinized. Then observe it carefully.

2. Observe things as they really are, not as they seem to be.

   As you look, do not expect anything, and do not assume anything. It is easy to assume what one normally expects to be there. For example, if you are looking at the profile of a person, you see only one ear, but you may believe that the person has two ears. Be mindful about what you actually see without taking anything for granted. Let your observation be completely non-judgmental.

3. If something is missing do not imagine something else in its place. 

   If something is missing then recognize that it is missing. Do not imagine something in its place. If someone asks you a question and no answer comes up in your mind, then do not feel obliged to make up an answer. You will then end up defending an answer that was imagined and not there naturally. If something is missing then continue to observe around that area. Maybe something interesting will come up, maybe not.

4. If something does not make sense then do not explain it away.

   If something does not make sense, then recognize that it does not make sense. Do not try to explain it away. If you encounter a failure do not just blame it on yourself or on the circumstances. Contemplate upon it until all inconsistencies (things that don’t make sense) are resolved. When faced with an inconsistency, be alert to what you might be taking for granted. At times it may take some thinking outside the box to realize what is going on.

5. Use physical senses as well as mental sense to observe.

   We associate the idea of sense organs with eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. However, the mind is also a sense organ, which senses the ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations out there. When being mindful, use all your senses to observe, including your mind.

6. Let the mind un-stack itself. 

   Let the mind present what to look at. There should be no digging into the memory. There should be no effort to recall. Simply look at what is right there in front of the mind’s eye. Let the mind un-stack itself naturally through patient contemplation. When that is allowed, the mind will never present anything overwhelming.

7. Experience fully what is there.  

   An important aspect of mindfulness is to fully experience what is there, such as, feelings, emotions, efforts, etc. But before you do that, make sure that your environment is safe and free of disturbance. The mind should be free of stimulants.  If the mind is racing, then simply experience that racing phenomenon without contributing to it. There should be no resistance when experiencing. Fully experience whatever the mind presents naturally.

8. Do not suppress anything.

   It is the suppression of perceptions, memories, knowledge, visualizations, thinking, etc., that causes all difficulties in life. First make sure that your environment is safe and free of disturbances. Any medical condition should be addressed appropriately first. You then start observing whatever is there without suppressing it. If something shameful appears then you observe and experience the shame. If something threatening appears then you observe and experience the threat.  Do not pre-judge and avoid something because you consider it to be painful. By not suppressing you establish complete integrity of perception.

9. Associate data freely.

   Let the data be presented by the mind without being interfered with. Let the mind associate that data freely on its own. Mindfulness is observing the very activity of thinking itself.

10. Do not get hung up on name and form.

    Simply be aware that name and form may act as built-in judgment of what is there. Your task is to see things as they are. There should be no effort to judge by deliberately supplying name and form to what is there.

11. Contemplate thoughtfully.

    Let non-judgmental observation provide accurate input. Let free association provide thoughtful contemplation.

12. Let it all be effortless.

    Any effort would come into play only when any of the above points are violated.

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You may practice mindfulness by doing the exercises at

Training in Mindfulness

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In physics, the center of mass  is the weighted average location of all the mass in a body or group of bodies. Various important calculations in mechanics become simplified when quantities are referenced to the center of mass, or when the entire mass of a body is treated as if it is concentrated at the center of mass.

We may regard the Self and the Soul in a similar manner.

A SELF is a weighted average location of all physical and mental energies and forces related to a person, much like the “center of mass.” 

So, underlying this concept of self there is an actual structure of energies and forces. This may be what Buddha was describing as summarized in The Structure of “I”.

If we look at a soul as something left after the body dies then we may describe it in a similar manner as follows:

A SOUL is a weighted average location of the mental energies and forces, remaining after the death of the physical body,  much like the “center of mass.”

By definition, spirit is the essence of something. It also refers to the mental energies and forces remaining after death. Therefore these mental energies and forces remaining after death constitute the spirit of a person. Spirit is not different from the mind.

As it is obvious from the above interpretation, a soul is what remains of the self after the removal of physical energies and forces. The soul does not have the same characteristics as the self. Soul does not behave the same way as the self did.

A soul is pretty much frozen until it creates a new self by becoming part of a new born baby. The last thought of the old self is the first thought of the new self. There are no “in-between life” after death and before birth. Ideas about “in-between lives” seems to be the projections of live self.

The new self of the baby has only certain elements of the old self. This  may explain the inexplicable talents and memories from some other life. But there is no “self” that continues from one body to the next.

We are not talking about reincarnation here. There seem to be no heaven or hell where souls may be stored indefinitely after death. There is recycling in nature.

Here we are looking beyond hopes and expectations. We are looking at physics on the plane of metaphysics.

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