Mindfulness is popular in the West and is often utilized to heal anxiety and depression, but most people only have a vague idea of what it means. In the Eastern worldview, mindfulness has a different function. They use words like clinging, attachment, suffering. “That’s what we’re talking about, getting caught up in our experience—that’s where suffering comes from.”[i]
Road rage is an example of being caught up in our experience. According to Leon James, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, “With road rage, you’re basically driving under the influence of impaired emotions.”[ii]
In 2011 “Corrine Leclair-Holler, then 29, was talking on her cellphone while driving in Concord, N.H. Another driver, Carissa Williams, then 23, yelled at her, then pulled ahead. When she reached a freeway on-ramp, Williams stopped her car, got out (leaving her own baby in the car), climbed into Leclair-Holler’s car, and shot her with a stun gun—despite Leclair-Holler’s cries that she was pregnant.”[iii] Ms. Williams was convicted of assault, criminal trespass and endangering the welfare of a minor. She was definitely “caught up” in her experience and many have suffered because of her reaction.
True mindfulness means not reacting when triggered. The Point of Power Practice provides the opportunity to choose response rather than reaction.
“When our past false-self survival strategy or other conditioning is triggered that moment is the point of power. At that ‘point’ we are presented with an all-important choice. If we choose to identify with the body, mind or emotions and react, remaining in P-B, we will experience afflictive emotions and suffering.
“If we choose to pause, remain calm and breathe, choosing to respond, we will experience the ‘feeling’ that characterizes P-A or Simple Reality. The breath is the ‘thread’ that leads back through the heart to the present moment and thence to the Implicate Order and the energy that is the foundation of all reality.”[iv]
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Supplemental Reading:
The Point of Power Practice, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
#25 Mindfulness
[i] Tingley, Kim. “Can mindfulness go from wellness pursuit to medical intervention? Maybe—but only if researchers can figure out how to measure it.” The New York Times Magazine. January 26, 2020, p. 22.
[ii] https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/road-rage-what-it-is-how-to-avoid-it
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Henry, Roy Charles. The ABC’s Of Simple Reality Volume II. Simple Reality. May 2018, p. 98.
