Mindfulness is not a capacity but a quality of our being which allows our capacities to manifest and flourish.
Those who learn to trust in the intelligence manifested through mindfulness come to realize that virtues are natural qualities within themselves, and not strategized or manufactured behavior.
Mindfulness practices focus on freeing the mind from fixation and restriction.

True Mindfulness: Not Just Practical Mindfulness and Mindfulness Meditation
By Isaac Portilla

There are many ways in which mindfulness ― a certain type of awareness ― manifests.  If you suddenly need to focus, mindfulness manifests as the capacity not to be dominated by worry.  If you have an exciting project, mindfulness manifests as the capacity to transcend fear and doubt, to be resilient through difficulties and inconveniences, and not to be subdued my non-constructive criticism.  If you have a problem with relationships, mindfulness manifests as the capacity not to be over critical or enter into violent or depressive patterns.  These are all examples of practical mindfulness.  As we see, mindfulness is not a capacity but a quality of our being which allows our capacities to manifest and flourish.  In this sense, mindfulness is the key that unlocks the capacities hidden within you, capacities which would remain repressed otherwise.  Thus, applied to the prior examples, mindfulness does not represent the capacity to be focused on tasks, or to be courageous undertaking projects, or to be gentle in relationships, but a certain type of awareness that allows those potentialities to happen.    Because of this reason, those who learn to trust in the intelligence manifested through mindfulness come to realize that virtues are natural qualities within themselves, and not strategized or manufactured behavior.

                Although its beneficial effects are many, mindfulness should not be considered the remedy for all life’s difficulties, much less a “pill” to achieve all that we want.  Mindfulness is not “practical” according to our desires, but according to nature, to coherent life and sustainable existence.  This is so because practical mindfulness is manifested through mindful awareness ― a living reality which is the very foundation of life.  This means that life itself is sustained by a mindful principle.  Without a real sense of this awareness, we will not be able to experience the beneficial effects of mindfulness in a consistent and natural manner.  So, in order to gain a greater sense of what true mindfulness is, we have to do mindfulness meditation, constituted by specific contemplation methods and exercises of awareness.  These are different from concentration and effort-based methods, because mindfulness, as we have discussed, does not refer to the capacity of concentration, but to the awareness that allows concentration and other capacities to happen in a natural manner.  Therefore, although concentration exercises can be practiced as introductory pathways, mindfulness practices focus on freeing the mind from fixation and restriction.  Through mindfulness meditation we come to experience mindful insight (a contemplative state) and, eventually, mindful awareness ― a way of perceiving reality in which the limitations of the mind disappear.

                Consequently, through practical mindfulness and through mindfulness meditation we get a greater and greater sense of what true mindfulness is until mindful awareness becomes available in a constant manner.  Then, practical mindfulness and mindfulness meditation will still be relevant, so that mindful awareness is embedded in our lives.  It is not advisable to drop practical mindfulness and mindfulness meditation once mindful awareness is realized.  If we stop them, or neglect them, we will take the risk of falling into old patterns that we may have overcome through our prior practice and enquiry.  Thus, we can conclude that true mindfulness is the harmonious combination of mindful reality (mindful awareness), mindful manifestation (practical mindfulness), and mindful practice (mindfulness meditation), without taking away the importance of any of these three complementary factors.
© 2015 Isaac Portilla
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