What is the purpose of life? Why are bad things always happening to me and not to others? Why am I here?
These are just some of the questions that seem to interest many of us at some point in life.
Spoiler: I am not going to answer these questions for you in this article! The answers lie within yourself!
However, when you learn about the principles of mindfulness and the true nature of life, it may inspire you to view life in a different perspective. Once you adapt these views, it becomes easier to accept difficult situations in life and face any crises. Find out how you can better live in the present moment and how to answer your own life questions!
The Principles of Mindfulness
How to gain a better understanding of the true nature of life!
In this article we will have a closer look at the principles of mindfulness and the true nature of life. It teaches you how to be more mindful of the present moment, not attaching to your past memories or clinging to expectations of the future. You may be surprised when you find out that you are already naked and that your grandma was right when she said: You shouldn’t have any regrets in the end!
Highlights
- What are the principles of mindfulness?
- Be mindful of the present moment
- Everything is impermanent
- Every moment is subject to change
“The past is over! The future hasn't come yet!”
WHAT are the principles of mindfulness?
The key principles of mindfulness are closely attached with the teachings of Buddhism. However, the view of the true nature of life can be applied to many day-to-day situations and it helps to develop a broader mind.
Once you adopt this knowledge as a part of your overall view of life, it can have a very positive impact on how you handle challenges, face unforeseeable changes or how to cope with difficult situations in life. If you are mindful of these principles you can better manage negative emotions, such as anger, jealousy, pain or grief. So, let’s have a closer look…
The key principles of mindfulness are:
- Be mindful of the present moment
- Understand that everything is impermanent
- Understand that every moment is subject to change
Be mindful of the present moment
Just live the moment! That’s actually easier said than done! It requires quite some practice to be fully present in the current moment because our mind naturally ventures to our past memories (such as regrets) and creates ideas about the future (expectations and worries). Consequently, it becomes rather difficult to fully focus on the here and now.
We often go through the day on auto-pilot. We are not mindful of what’s happening around us. When it comes to negative events, we generally welcome this auto-pilot. Yet, we are missing out on truly feeling alive!
So how do we actually do it? How can we be present in this moment?
It’s all about practice! We need to teach our mind the view of the true nature of life. Most of the time we live in the past or we are worried about the future. Our thoughts keep clinging to past memories and attach to the dreams of our future. However, the true nature of life is different:
THE PAST IS OVER
and
THE FUTURE HASN'T COME YET!
We need to accept that we cannot go back in time! Right now any past moments are over! THERE IS NO PAST!
We should also understand that we are only imagining our future according to our past memories. You cannot say anything about the future without your knowledge from the past. For example, we know the sunrise from our past memories and thus we expect it to come back in the future. However, if we never saw the sun rise, we would not think that it will be there tomorrow. Anything we project into the future comes from our past! Yet, it’s only expectations! At this moment THE FUTURE DOES NOT EXIST!
Our future is just a reflection of our past!
Consequently, we need to free our mind from attaching to time and space.
When we get attached to the voice in our mind, we should try to tame it! We need to teach our mind that there is no past and there is no future!
It doesn’t mean that you can’t have expectations or that you shouldn’t have dreams. It’s totally fine to plan your future, but be ready to adjust your expectations, do not cling to them, and keep an open mind. It’s also totally fine to think about our past. It’s actually good if we reflect on it because it can teach us valuable lessons, but we should not chase after our past or attach to it. Both, our future and our past are just concepts in our mind, but neither exists here and now!
However, being in the present moment doesn’t mean to always be in a good mood and to have pleasurable thoughts or feelings. It’s about being aware of what’s truly happening around us and understand the sensations in your body. It’s important to embrace life with all its good and its bad! Be aware of your thoughts and feelings, understand where they are coming from, but moreover be mindful of the true nature of life without the filter of a narrow mind.
What can we do to open up our mind and stay in the present moment?
1) Don’t listen to the voice in your head!
Your mind is a filter and the reality might be different. Step back for a second and be aware of your current state of mind. Are you angry, jealous, scared, happy, in doubt, or do you have regrets? What is the true cause for these thoughts and emotions? Don’t always trust the voice in your head and try to see the current moment as it really is.
2) Don’t let your thoughts and emotions irritate what you are truly experiencing right now.
Try to understand what you are experiencing despite what you smell, taste, hear, think or feel. For example, coffee is bitter. Even if we teach our mind “it’s sweet”, we may be able to disillusion ourselves for a moment and we may possibly have a sweeter taste to it… but in reality, it’s still bitter!
3) Do NOT compare!
Live in the moment without comparing what we have, had and will have! Everything is impermanent and every moment is subject to change (see below). If we want to have peace at mind, we should not compare anything or anyone because everything there is, everyone in this world and every moment we experience is simply unique!
4) Embrace the tough times, too!
Try to embrace the beauty of this moment even if you are in a tough situation. Unpleasant moments are as much part of our life as pleasant moments, and they deserve their room as well. Accept that something may happen that you don’t like or cannot control. If you feel unpleasant at any moment you are rejecting to accept that this is just an unpleasant moment.
Everything is impermanent
Buddha once said: “Life is established on suffering.” In everything there is a rising and a disappearing! It’s there for a while but it’s never there forever! Everything will disappear eventually. Nothing is permanent! Nothing belongs to us!
Our body might be in good shape for a while, then we get sick more often while we grow old, and ultimately we disappear. A baby comes to live, grows up, then dies. A car is built in the factory, someone buys it and uses it for some time, maybe someone else uses it as well, but eventually it gets destroyed. Due to our ignorance, we don’t see life as the cycle that it is. We are not mindful that everything is impermanent and we are not prepared to lose anything or anyone at any time.
We feel sorrow and grief in our life when our loved ones or our precious possessions disappear. Yet, the suffering already exists all along because that’s the cycle of life. We simply ignore it, and consequently it hits us by surprise. It’s like our world gets raddled because we don’t understand why such pain and suffering is happening to us.
The good news is that our feelings are impermanent as well!
If we experience fear, sorrow, pain or suffering, we can make our mind aware that the feelings are impermanent as well and they will eventually disappear! Normally when there is a pleasant feeling, we get attached to it and we want to hold on to it. And when there is an unpleasant feeling, we want to badly get rid of it. In our mind we think it will last forever but it will not! If we accept it and if we understand the nature of life, it will help us to tame our mind. We will get more relaxed and develop a more peaceful mind overall.
