Linehan on Mindfulness

Dendromecon rigida has beautiful leaves. Photographed this morning with sunlight backlighting it. I like this paragraph from Marsha Linehan‘s “Building a Life Worth Living”: Mindfulness is the practice of directing our attention to only one thing. And that one thing is the moment in which we are alive. The very moment we are in. The beauty of mindfulness is that if we look at the moment, we will discover that we are looking at the universe. And if we can become one with the moment — just this moment — the moment cracks open and we are shocked that joy is in this moment. Strength to bear the suffering of our lives is also in this moment. Going through the practice just once doesn’t get us there. Mindfulness is not a place we got to. Mindfulness is a place we are. It is going from and coming back to mindfulness that is practice. It’s just this breath, just this step, just this struggle. Mindfulness is just where we are now, with our eyes wide open, aware, awake, attentive. pp. 280-281,…