"You must take all necessary time to master your mind. If you master your mind, you will have mastery over your body and your speech. ... Mastery of the mind is achieved through constant awareness (consciousness) of all your thoughts and actions. ... Maintaining this constant mindfulness in the practice of tranquility and insight, you will eventually be able to sustain the recognition of wisdom even in the midst of ordinary activities and distractions. Mindfulness is thus the very basis, the cure for all the day-to-day afflictions of one's life."We can become so busy scurrying about so quickly in our lives that we forget to stay in touch with who we are, what we are, and what we are doing. In this way, we miss all the beauty; we miss the sadness; we miss the authenticity - reality if you will - or the beautiful texture of our lives. We miss the truth of our experiences, moment by moment. Our lack of mindfulness makes us careless: Often, we hurt others without thinking or even noticing we've done so. And, we hurt ourselves. We keep falling asleep at the switch of our lives, leaving ourselves vulnerable to all manner of accidents, both physical and emotional.
Too often, people think the solving of the world's problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching it and all of its beings gently. Mindfulness is a teacher we cannot do without.
