Always Mindful

When I used to walk home from school as a child, there was one word etched into the concrete. It was carved deep and clear.

“Mind”

I would think…”Hmmm. Mind, it says. I wonder who put this here and why.”

As I grew up and went through High School I started having experiences of vast depth within the mind from many different angles. Experiences that I am positive most teenagers my age were not having, because if they were, they would have questioned what was going on a lot more and acted a bit differently. They would have observed themselves and spoke of existence at a level which acknowledged that all that really mattered was finding the ultimate Truth, more so living the ultimate Truth. So towards the end of High School, as I would walk home in these days of deep thought, I started to see the carving in a completely different light. It didn’t matter who scratched it or why. It was a sign from the infinite Mind itself, telling me to remember our true nature. Every time I would walk by it immersed in thought, trying to “figure this whole existence thing out”, I would be reminded from another aspect of myself to keep in mind the eternal one.

I would walk by it and remember to be here, be now, be still and feel. Actionless action, Wu Wei. Just dig deeper and silence my mind. Instead of logically finding my way back to the ocean, I was reminded to come back to being the ocean. Every time I would walk by the engraving, the internal dialogue was silenced.

Now as I exist in every moment, there is a reminder that goes beyond a word sketched in the sidewalk. It is an instant reflex to come back to being the ocean.

I feel feet make contact with concrete.

Always mindful.

I feel air upon the skin of the head and hands.

Always mindful.

I feel the branch of the tree touch the shoulder.

Always mindful.

I feel the skin touch the shirt and pants.

Always mindful.

I hear the birds chirp across the street.

Always mindful.

I hear the wind blow through the trees: the leaves and branches.

Always mindful.

I hear the people talking while walking down the street.

Always mindful.

I hear the pant legs rub up against themselves creating a trance rhythm.

Always mindful.

I smell the Jasmine flowers as I walk by a garden.

Always mindful.

I smell food that people are cooking for dinner.

Always mindful.

I feel the skeleton oriented in three planes, as one experience.

Always mindful.

I feel the chi, blood and heartbeat flow through the body.

Always mindful.

I feel the muscles, bones, glands, nerves, connective tissues and organs.

Always mindful.

I feel the chakras breathing prana.

Always mindful.

I hear dogs barking, and the sounds of their paws making contact with concrete.

Always mindful.

I feel gravity, and the exertion of force to propel the body through space.

Always mindful.

I hear the hum of this dimension.

Always mindful.

I am mindful of so many occurrences I could list experiences for lifetimes.

But what’s really funny, is that it is all one experience. All these things to be “mindful of” are only separate in our conceptual mind, not the eternal mind. They are all one experience. The flow of the Tao. One continual progression of Now. It only seems like many experiences because most of us have our constant categorical and conceptual mind running like a stampeding elephant. But in the eternal mind, they are one.

I can’t see myself ever being bored.

All of existence is the most fascinating thing I could ever experience, let alone imagine. Be observant like a child, that is what I was reminded of by the carving in the concrete. “Mind”. Remember to silence the mind, so that you can feel existence. So you can be awed by every moment. “Mind”. Harmonize the individual mind with eternal mind until there is no separation, until they are one. “Mind”. Mind until there is no mind. “Mind”.