The last two blog posts were about Pausing and Relaxing. Pausing returns us to our life right here, while Relaxing teaches us how to be with whatever we find in each moment. In life and in mindfulness meditation, these instructions are fundamental to our ability to be present and available, so we are not constantly “somewhere else” in time and space.

But the wonder of this practice is that as we learn to truly observe and attend to what is happening, we see how inextricable our experience is from the world around us. Mindfulness, in this way, becomes much more than just introspection. We grow sensitive to how we are affected by external stimuli big and small – by another’s words and moods, by world events and the environment all around us, by the weather, by so many things. We may also start to understand how ripples of influence also begin with us, sending out concentric circles of care, or of harm, depending on our intentions and actions. With this kind of attention, we begin to see and take accountability for how our choices and actions have consequences in the world. Opening in this way, we realise that we are not separate – If I really pay attention to the hurt I feel, and to the hurt I impart, can I continue to cause so much harm? The call to an ethical life and deep care for self and other will be unmistakable.

Opening, also means seeing that the world doesn’t revolve around us. Circles of impact ripple out from all individuals, all events, all natural phenomena, so many way beyond our knowledge or control. And then we open across time, seeing also the arc of history, patterns of causes and conditions and habits and beliefs, of cultural and social and familial conditioning. Opening in this way, we understand – this is how it is.

Opening, we may understand that nothing matters and yet everything matters. Without overreach, without sparing energy for what we do not control, we attend to what is here, and who we are with, and this place we are at, and this moment we are in. We find ourselves in time and space, interconnected by the web of life to all that’s around us. How then shall we respond?

Mindfulness for mindfulness’ sake, is limited in its potential, but as a means of understanding and responding to our lives and the world around us, immensely powerful. If we are not mindful, we are simply reacting to thoughts and feelings that result from all the many influences we are subject to, without ever truly understanding why. When we really pay attention and see things as they are, only then can we begin to respond effectively as we open ourselves to our lives and the world around us.