Mindfulness and Responsible Action

“The mind is not yours, but you are responsible for It.” – Sayadaw U Tejaniya

In an unexamined and inattentive life, the path from stimulus to reactive response is a short one. Reactivity highlights habitual patterns of action embodied by what we say, what we do, and what we think in any situation. It’s just what the mind does. This is depicted in the figure below.

Observing these habitual patterns lets us meet ourselves, over and over.  We can then decide whether our habits lead to problems for ourselves, for others, or both; whether our actions embody our ideals and better aspirations. 

Meditative practice gives us space to act in alignment with our ideals and our goals.  We achieve this through a combination of mindfulness (sati), clear comprehension (sampajanna), and elements of wise reflection (yoniso manasikara). So, what are these things, how are they developed, and how do they work together?

The word ‘mindfulness’ has become a bit of a muddle, overlaid with the views and aspirations of everyone from sincere practitioners to self-help hucksters.  But mindfulness is a wonderfully simple thing.  It is the quality of mind we may refer to as awareness; just awareness, and nothing else.  The apprehension of the various elements of our experience, along with their interpretation, association, conceptualization, and any resulting action(s) lies with other mental processes.  This division of labor means that mindfulness is just ‘bare awareness’, free from the baggage of stories, opinions, judgments, or even meaning.

At its heart the practice of mindfulness meditation is simply noticing what is happening moment-to-moment. We sit, or walk, or stand, or lie down, and attend to the changing sensation of the breath, or sensations in the body. With practice we can encompass sights and sounds as meditative objects, and eventually states of mind, although these may spin up labels, stories, and associations if we move from following the breath before our mindfulness and concentration are stronger.

Sitting and following the breath may sound like a frightfully boring task.  But if we embrace the fact that meditative practice is like an ultra-marathon and not a sprint, with time and patience we begin to experience some remarkable things.  We notice that the “closeness” of these sensations to our awareness varies breath-to-breath, and over an in-breath or out-breath as well.  Mindfulness is a factor that gives our experience stability.  Canonical texts refer to mindfulness as the quality that binds awareness to sense objects.  When we begin our meditation practice this binding acts more like a loose rubber band, with wild swings into thought trains before returning to the breath or the body.  Over time we get closer and closer to the meditation object and stay there with fewer excursions.  Following this changing proximity means we are observing how the mind is working, and not just the object(s) of our experience.

As the mind quiets down, we notice the breath is comprised of many distinct sensations – perhaps twelve to fifteen different sensations with each in-breath, and about half as many with the out-breath.  This means mindful awareness is now “sticking the landing” with both stability and precision, or (if you like) speed.  Doing this over and over is like training a muscle.  We become adept at noticing things the moment they occur, or at least very soon thereafter.  With further training we develop continuity of mindfulness, bringing this quality from the cushion into the experiences of daily life.  This is the key enabling factor for what follows.

With mindful awareness we notice when disturbing thoughts, memories, or difficult emotions arise, or when we’re the subject of hurtful speech or actions, before we drop into automatic reactive responses.  This provides what many refer to as the “space between stimulus and response.”  I like to think of it as stepping aside to objectively consider what’s happening in that moment.  This is illustrated in the Figure below.

Mindfulness training gives us the freedom to step aside and consider how we should respond to a given stimulus – or whether we should respond at all.  Mindfulness and concentration together facilitate the process of clear comprehension, where the clarity of our awareness lets us fully comprehend, without bias, the impact of our actions. 

The process of clear comprehension is sequential.  First, we consider the purpose of any response.  Why should we respond?  Would this response align with our ideals and better aspirations?  Next, we consider the suitability of any response.  Is a potential action practical and achievable?  Do we have the means to realize it? Is it suitable in this moment and context?

Wise reflection then lets us determine whether an action leads to problems for ourselves, for others, or both.  Or will our response ease suffering in ourselves, in others, or in both?

This analysis may sound like we’ll be carrying around a long checklist every time we undertake any action.  In practice, and with practice, the whole process can be accomplished in a few seconds’ pause; sometimes in a fraction of a second.  This presupposes, of course, that we have identified, understood, and internalized our ideals and aspirations, and found that they are consonant with the principals of non-harming, compassion and kindness, and the betterment not only of ourselves but of others, too.  Then, when we choose to act (or not), we do so responsibly, in alignment with our ideals.  This to me is taking responsibility.  For if we are inattentive, how can we be responsible except to clean up the messes we create?

We can think of habitual patterns as ruts we fall into when we are inattentive. By practicing this combination of mindful awareness, clear comprehension, and wise reflection we begin to fill in these ruts, and become less likely to be pulled into them. We have the space to develop qualities such as patience and persistence. This moves us from reactive habits to lasting traits.

(c) 2022, Shawn Burke, all rights reserved.

REFERENCES

Nayanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Weiser Books, Newburyport MA (2014).

Ambalatthika-rahulovada Sutta, MN 61 (https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.061.than.html)

Satipatthana Sutta, MN 10 (https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.010.than.html)