Practicing Mindfulness: Reclaiming Your Power

The most literal translation of the Buddhist word we think of as mindfulness (sati/smrti in the classic Buddhist languages) has a connotation of "remembering,” as in a sort of recurrent reminder, a mental muscle which we can gently flex to help us return and dwell more fully in the present moment. We usually associate mindfulness with a sense of presence, with embodiment, with coming into the reality of lived experience, and perhaps with the reduction of the various stresses and anxieties that comes from being dragged constantly into the past and hypothetical futures again and again. But in recent months, I've been contemplating the sheer might (and also the great fragility) of the oligarchic companies and the invasive attention economy they’ve built. Through the intense manipulation of human attention, these forces are currently attempting to claim sole ownership of our world. I wish this was hyperbole, but we live in a time where real problems have become weirder than fictional villains. You really couldn’t make this up without accusations of writing a plot that no one would dare believe.

In this context, mindfulness has to do with learning to exert more influence over the intention with which we place our attention. Mindfulness is not passivity, nor is it merely a nondescript presence. Instead, mindfulness is an act of placing attention where we want it, instead of where somebody else profits from its capture. Mindfulness is how we begin to cut the strings and slowly reclaim all the levers of our nervous systems which Amazon, Meta and countless others have learned how to ensnare us with colors, clicks and likes. In this sense, mindfulness is a power source, the doorway to a kind of revolutionary confidence. Mindfulness is the skill we build toward personal and collective freedom, a way of demonstrating to myself that I can place my attention where I want it to be, not where someone else can manipulate it.

This is how I am thinking of the practice of meditation now, as both vital and crucial to transforming our world. And yet, it’s still so simple and personal, a daily ritual as intimate as a shower, as personal as the way you make your coffee or tea, as gentle as sitting on your couch with a book. With this in mind, here is a simple guided 20-minute mindfulness meditation that you can download and use at home. Below, you can find written instructions and explanations of both the view and the technique behind mindfulness practice.

I'm very much looking forward to Thursday morning sitting group beginning April 3, 8-9 AM Eastern for paid subscribers to this Substack. All you have to do is sign up, and you’ll receive a zoom link on Wednesday April 2nd to join!