Mindfulness: Wake Up or Be A Better Person

We have a choice when we engage in mindfulness or meditation practices: to wake up to our true nature or to reinforce the idea of seperation through using it to become a better person. Much of mindfulness that is taught today is about being a better, "more productive" version of ourselves. To become our "best" selves which is often based on what we have been conditioned and told to us is our "best" self. In Western society, where we are taught making money and being productive is the purpose of our lives, mindfulness is used to increase our capacity to manage our increasingly stressfull and overfull lives without ever considering if this narrative we are being told is true. Is there anything inherently wrong with productivity, money, or being busy? No. But what is the cost of these hectic modern lives? Each person must answer this question for themselves.

Or mindfulness skills can be taught to help us heal which is valid and useful for many of us who were born into chaotic lives and in a society that is not comfortable with emotions and pain. Yet again, this approach can unconsciously reinforce the belief of a separate self that needs to be "fixed" or "saved".

The true purpose behind meditation was to help cultivate an inner enviroment where we can wake up and deepen into our true nature. When we realize that there is no separate me living this life. There is only God, the Self, Life, or Universe, to give it a few names, living this life through all of its expressions including plants, the land, microbes, animals (including us), and trees. While humans have the capacity to be self-aware, it is not because we humans are special from other creations of Life, but that Life created a vehicle in which self-awareness could occur. Life does not need us to be better people to wake up or realize the Truth spoken throughout all religions and spiritual practices. Enlightenment is not for the few, but is something we all have within our capacity. However, it is the few who seem interested in waking up the Truth of themselves because it does require an integrity and a commitment to the Truths that present themselves on this journey.

And for those who have tasted the freedom, joy, love, and peace that awakens in us as we open up and rest in our true nature, we naturally want to share that with all beings. For that which each of us our seeking through power, control, romantic relationships, drugs, adventure, academia, or spiritual practices and many other pursuits is answered when we finally return to our true nature or selves. We are what we are seeking through external sources. And it is in the return that the seeking is satisfied.

Life, God, or the Self does not need you to be a better person to wake up. Don't get me wrong, we can learn how to use mindfulness skills to be less reactive , and I am not condoning acting out of our anger or pain, but it is not a requirement to wake up to your true self. Meditation skills are to help you navigte the pitfalls and power of beliefs that can keep us stuck in the illusion of being separate from God and act from that state.

So the choices is yours: wake up or keep chasing the dream that you are separate from God.