Mindfulness and meditation are two words that are seen together often. Mindfulness can be found in most spiritual traditions and in fact can be found when we look at the basis of our experience. Mindfulness is seen as the basic way we experience life and has been call the “ground of being” by many. About 2500 years ago the Buddha brought mindfulness to the center of his teachings thereby bringing new emphasis to a practice that was perhaps taken for granted by many for so long. A central practice to the Buddha’s routine was meditation and it became associated with mindfulness over the centuries following his death. Mindfulness meditation is in fact a very important and effective way of engaging the present moment. It really does serve as the well of resource for being in the present moment. However, like anything else too much of anything can distort original intent. I’ve seen and worked with many people who have become expert at meditation but have not been able to connect that expertise to everyday life. It’s almost like they have become addicted to meditation and are using it as an escape. It can be a very effective escape as the ability to retreat inward is particularly tempting especially in today’s age of high stress. The really knowledgeable meditators know how important it is to balance the inward intensity of meditation with a fully engaged “outward” life. My experience of too much meditation produces a feeling of spaciness which is actually pleasant in a way but results in a disconnection from everyday life.
The antidote to too much mindfulness meditation is to bring those same qualities of the present moment into our everyday activities. It is a way of “grounding” the energy that is produced during meditation and is the natural complement to mindfulness meditation practice. Without that natural complement, the meditation practice becomes unbalanced and has a spill over effect into our lives. What better way to enjoy the fruits of our meditation practice than to bring that energetic present moment quality to everything we do. It’s really about being fully engaged and deeply experiencing every aspect of our every day lives. There are many meditative traditions that have a goal of disconnecting from this life, breaking the wheel of karma so to speak and breaking the repetition of having to be reborn over and over again. To me this kind of thinking is pure escapism and denial of the life we live in the present moment. If those other things exist in the way it is thought by most then the the best way to deal with it would be to fully accept and experience the present moment in every aspect of our lives. Meditation is a great way to keep the engine well oiled but we must run the machinery in order to circulate the oil throughout the machine.