Re: [FairfieldLife] Mindfulness; the Guru as mantra - Let 'er rip, or not?

[emptyb...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]]

Mindfulness is just a form of continuous mental recollection of the field of 
subjective experience – whether sensations or mentations, whether body, senses 
or mind. It can be quite exhausting as you suggest and probably is exhausting 
for many beginners. As a method for repeated refocusing of attention, 
mindfulness is an attempt to replicate the actuality of the witnessing value of 
awareness. 
  
 The problem with that approach is that fundamentally, awareness is already 
witnessing every fluctuation of the mind (antah-karana/chitta), senses and 
bodily activity. That means awareness is awake to each experience as it arises, 
presents itself and perishes, although in itself awareness is uninvolved. 
Awareness is the who in “who we are” although we habitually and ignorantly 
identify ourselves as a body-mind personality. 
  
 Something to note is the difference in meaning between the words “awareness” 
and “consciousness”. 
  
 Awareness = vigilant or watchful; closely observant, alert or attentive
  
 Consciousness = the state of knowing an external object or a subjective 
perception
  
 Etymology: co/con/com (= with) + scîre (= to know) + ness (= state, quality, 
condition)
  
 By definition, the word consciousness means an “object-defined” attention - 
whether that object is material, sensory or mental. The word therefore 
signifies attention that is not only object oriented but inherently 
“objectified” by its own operations, functioning and nature.  
  
 Thus the obvious question what is “pure consciousness” (i.e. without an 
object). Is it the opposite of impure Consciousness? If indeed “impure 
consciousness” means attention to an object, then any attention to a mantra is 
“impure”. If the adjective “pure” is added to the word “consciousness” to 
signify a type of simple or unmixed consciousness, then by definition it still 
signifies a consciousness that is intentional, engaged and objectified.  
 The rest is just bullshit, bullshit, swaha.