The previous installments of this Satipaṭṭhāna series described how to cultivate mindfulness in seated meditation and walking meditation. In this article, let us learn how to be mindful in everyday activities.
If you know how to establish mindfulness correctly when turning during walking meditation, you can take a small example from that for being mindful amid the thousand tasks at home. When you turn, resolve not to break mindfulness, and later you can say it was successful. Similarly, before going to the bathroom, you can make an adhiṭṭhāna (firm resolution): While performing this bathroom task, I will carry it out entirely with mindfulness, and as I leave, I will re-establish mindfulness.
Alternatively, there is for a bhikkhu what is called ‘gata-paccāgata-vata’ (the discipline of going and returning). After washing the alms bowl before almsround, having made an adhiṭṭhāna (firm resolution) with the bowl, one takes it without letting water drip. From that point, until going through the whole village on almsround and returning, one looks at the bowl and resolves: I will spend every step with mindfulness. This is what is called gata-paccāgata-vata gata means going, paccāgata means returning mindfulness is not broken in either direction. Do you know the benefit the Buddha spoke of? It is said that if one dons even a single sweep of a robe, a great blessing is gained; when one maintains the gata–paccāgata-vata, such benefits accrue even at the moment of putting on a single sweep. Such benefits arise for one who keeps the discipline of going and returning. There is an added connection here: this quality persists beyond this life. Even after dying from this life and being reborn elsewhere, it remains. I may be mistaken about the source; please check any references.
Therefore, when establishing mindfulness in daily life, begin as in walking meditation by choosing two or three simple tasks you can do alone. At the start, make an adhiṭṭhāna (firm resolution), such as: ‘I am now washing this plate’. Choose small tasks. It is not practical to do this while eating. It cannot be done well while talking. Once you start conversing, you cannot keep mindfulness established, nor is it fair to expect the other person to do so; it can also make the person you meet feel tense. Therefore, I kindly request that, during the meditation program, you maintain silence. The notice “For women, women only” is posted because women tend to talk more; as a man I present here a quote regarding women. So please do not take offense at this. As much as possible, mind your own tasks. That is why today we will speak only as needed, providing essential information.
So, choose two or three tasks for the day. When I was starting out, Venerable Dhammika told me: Be mindful when brushing your teeth. Be mindful when washing your face, and when washing your hands and feet. That’s all—just one per day. If you begin to do that task from start to finish, mindfulness will already be established even as you prepare for it; after finishing, mindfulness will remain for two or three minutes. Then, when you begin to establish mindfulness during bathroom chores and cleaning tasks, one day you will clearly see where you cannot keep mindfulness. On that day, one can truly be called a yogāvācara (a practitioner). In every context, while sitting firmly grounded in the four postures, while doing walking meditation, and in daily activities you will finally have to ask: Where is it that I was unable to maintain mindfulness?
On the day you reach that point, all twenty-four hours, you come to a state where you are no longer in debt for what you eat. For us, especially for the Sangha, everything we consume is offered by others. This is called ‘using on credit’ meaning we eat on a kind of debt if we do not fulfill our task. That debt is repaid on the day you are able to make a firm resolution: From the moment I rise in the morning until I go to sleep, I will be mindful in every task I do.
Yet a small clarification is needed. What is it? While striving to be mindful, you will also come to know: in this segment, mindfulness is absent. That discovery is the most valuable thing. Throughout the day up to this point there was mindfulness but here, there was not. The moment mindfulness returns, you begin to discern: at this point mindfulness was missing. Then you understand the cause of the lapse this conversation, or an unsuitable person, or unsuitable food, or an unsuitable sight. From this you can cultivate both assāda (the allure) and ādīnava (the drawback), seeing them clearly. Therefore, once you start recognizing for yourself, ‘At these times mindfulness is absent’ that is great progress. It is far better than merely knowing when mindfulness is present: to know it is absent and remain unshaken.
This is the visible life pattern on this side of Nibbana: a hope oriented toward unsuitable aims. As long as you are with mindfulness, you know you are with mindfulness; you know you are with an unwholesome sign when it is so. When it is absent, you know mindfulness is absent. A very good place to notice this is the turning point during walking meditation. At that spot we tend to fidget and lose our grip. Bird calls and many kinds of stimuli have an influence there. This happens even more strongly in daily activities. When such things arise, to break the continuity by chatting, I would regard as a fault. Why? Because we shape these mindful periods with great effort. We have not come here to engage in idle talk or to get acquainted. We recognize one another as disciples of the Buddha, as followers of the Blessed One. That recognition happens through mindfulness.
When we meet, the learned elder tells us: ‘If you are mindful wherever you go, heedful wherever you go, then wherever you may be, we travel with the same lifeblood. Wherever you are, we are connected’. This is not achieved through handshakes or embraces. If we fulfill our duty, spending every moment with mindfulness, the work of the dispensation is accomplished right away. Likewise, anyone who hears or sees this gains a sense of peace.
I will conclude, briefly and mindful of time, on how to bring the mindfulness cultivated in walking meditation into daily life. While walking, if we notice the pressures, contacts, and frictions on the sole the left sole, the right sole, understand that these same qualities exist everywhere in daily life, both inwardly and outwardly. Whenever something touches the palm or the sole wherever it is felt on the body regard every such contact with mindfulness. There is no restriction on location. Likewise, in daily life there are moments when a task must be done within a clear time frame. Then we have to move quickly. And when coordinating with someone else, inevitably the mind goes outward. Do not push yourself to establish mindfulness in these two situations. It is difficult. As much as possible, aim to keep mindfulness while doing tasks that are your own. When working alone, try to sustain mindfulness; you will often succeed. During conversation or while handling sudden, urgent matters, this is what is called nibbedhakatā, forceful penetration. Let the body carry out what must be done and refrain from forcing the mind; it will perform its role. After a few days you will discern the pattern. Rather than trying to plant mindfulness in hectic, turbulent situations, which is like trying to split a hair on the blade of a rupee note an unwise effort, focus as much as possible, on pauses and intervals, on tasks where you need not speak to anyone or be connected on either side.
If you establish mindfulness in such tasks, one day you will see for yourself the link between the mindfulness of daily life and the mindfulness of the sitting or walking practice. On that day, you truly become connected to the name ‘yogāvācara’ (practitioner).
On that day, there will be a capacity to remain present through all twenty-four hours or at least to know when mindfulness is absent. I consider that more valuable than claiming attainment of jhāna (meditative absorption), path and fruit, or arahantship. Why? Because the mind has turned inward. Only then can we truly investigate the active defilements (pariyutthāna kilesa) and the latent tendencies (anusaya kilesa). This is what I intended to recall as a first set of instructions.
May all be at ease! Sadhu! Together let us keep the Dharma wheel rolling.
Translated by
Dr Shermila Milroy
© Satipatthāna magazine