Mindfulness and Mood

One of the things that characterizes the legendary spiritual savants is an immunity to mood. They are reported to have retained their equanimity in spite of formidable obstacles to a sense of wellbeing.

Our moods are a complex soup of instinct, self assessment, and habit which result in an emotional cognition that overlays our sense of being. One of the many benefits of meditation is the emergence of mindfulness. It does not happen over-night, but as our meditation soaks into our process of being we find ourselves awake in the moment. This "Mindfulness" or "being awake in the moment" provides an opportunity to notice and to refuse to indulge instinctual prods to mood formation.

Mindfulness then makes possible the cultivation of that rare flower of being: enlightened equanimity.

Self: Process or Entity?

What we nominally regard as "Self " is colloquially considered to be an entity: this is a natural unconsidered animistic misconception.

One of the most significant benefits of meditation is the emergence of a being awakened to the pit-falls of pre-considered existence. Existence exist whether we consider it or not, and though our considerations are always after the fact, we tend to lead with our considerations. Considerations are the product of mind, and in particular the mind's thirst for certainty. The value of consideration is as it serves the path opened by intuition. Perceptions are the undiluted products of being. It is a quite remarkable experience when the awakened being notices that the "Self" is not an entity: self is a process; a process in which the conscious mind will be discovered to be merely the voice of the intellect. When our mind is still, our being is more wholly awake, and our intelligence is unchained because being's attention is not absorbed in self's projections. And when being is not absorbed in self's projections it becomes obvious that self is being and that being is a process.

The being of the universe is a process, and self is an ephemeral jewel in the luminous lotus flower of eternal being.

Our joy and our suffering is that of simple a human creature.