Mandi on Mindfulness...What we pay attention changes everything

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Mandi on Mindfulness Part 2:
Paying Attention and Mindfulness – A Pep-Talk

Have you tried any mindfulness or contemplative prayer practices yet?  If so I would love for you to comment in the blog stream below.  I am hoping the following will be a pep-talk to further your thirst for this practice in your life. I would love to know both your positive experience, and your frustrating experiences.

We know the desert fathers practiced silence and solitude in the un-institutionalized desert communities of pure devotion and removed from religion.  Religion becomes toxic when it becomes hollow “form without power”, or structure without Spirit. Religion was growing less intimate and authentic as Rome integrated and infiltrated the Christian faith into government. But, what in the world did they do out there that would cultivate such deep soul-stirring testimony, writings, and tradition?

You have to be a special sort of person to read their works directly and glean gems that are available to pull down into the here-and-now. Personally, I find it far more accessible to read books by OTHER people who read those original books (full disclosure). 

And now, in addition, we have gifts from the psychological side of our existence which offer of lots of empirically, evidenced-based techniques to pick from as we decide what fits and what serves us in our unique, personalized expression of this mission to “pay attention” to what we CHOOSE in greater and greater measure.

What we pay attention to changes everything. When we get out of the locked cell of this business of the mind and look AT our thoughts rather than FROM our thoughts, deciding which ones hold truth and are worthy of our investment, and which ones bring us distraction and loss. - MJP

Thompson (2010) lists a great summary of the Biblical stories peppered through and consistently laced into our faith legacy:  Adam. Eve. Cain. Noah. Abraham. Sarah. Moses. Gideon. Deborah. Samuel. David. Mary. Joseph. Wise astronomers. Jesus. Paul.” The argument couldn’t be any more solid from a Biblical perspective…mindfulness is imperative to a soul that is alive and connected” (2010). My favorite are the details found in the story of Moses and the burning bush:

Exodus 3 The Voice (VOICE)
3 Now one day when Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, he guided the flock far away from its usual pastures to the other side of the desert and came to a place known as Horeb, where the mountain of God stood. 2 There, the Special Messenger of the Eternal appeared to Moses in a fiery blaze from within the bush. Moses looked again at the bush as it blazed; but to his amazement, the bush did not burn up in flames.

Moses (to himself): 3 Why is this bush not burning up? I need to move a little closer to get a better look at this amazing sight.
4 When the Eternal One saw Moses approach the burning bush to observe it more closely, He called out to him from within the bush.

Eternal One: Moses! Moses!

Moses: I’m right here.

Eternal One: 5 Don’t come any closer. Take off your sandals and stand barefoot on the ground in My presence, for this ground is holy ground. 6 I am the True God, the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

May we "Practice paying attention and awaken to that which is extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary. And as we live our lives in response to the One who is calling to us out the burning bush in our own lives, we discover that we are standing on Holy Ground more often than we think!" (Barton 2007)

All of us, no matter the level of thriving or suffering, have to undertake the endeavor to collect ourselves – mostly our minds – on a moment by moment basis to apply ourselves to the thing which we pursue with our presence in the particular moment at hand. - MJP

Even before that, we need to pay attention to if the thing we are pursuing in the moment at hand is the thing we WANT to be pursuing, even in micro-measured behaviors and the direction our day takes.
Our awareness is constantly shifting from this to that. It is my belief that the more we govern that shift, the more we move into the sweet land of thriving.


Mindfulness Offering Installment #2:
Legs Up the Wall Pose 
Use this pose in connection to the Thirds Breaths 

 Barton, R. H. (2007) Sacred Rythms. Intervarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL.  
Thompson, C. (2010).  Anatomy of the Soul. Tyndall Press. Carol Stream, IL


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