Techniques and Theory
Four: Exercising Mindfulness
But really, why isn=t our mindfulness strong?
After all, mindfulness is not intellect. A person may lack a bright and keen intellect, but this has nothing to do with mindfulness.
Nor is mindfulness intellectual gymnastics and analysis. To the contrary, we are only seeking simple faith in God, and that this faith not be hidden and unconscious within us. AHe believed in Hashem, and He considered it@ (Breishit 15:6). But this verse may also be translated, Ahe believed in Hashem, and he himself considered.@ In other words, he himself meditated upon his belief. We wish to meditate upon our faith with a breadth of thought that will fill our entire body (as we will later discuss, God willing).
And since every Jew is descended from prophets, why should any of us lack this type of imagination and mindfulness? The answer is simply that we have not properly used and exercised it. This is like a physical ability: if you do not use it and exercise it, it will weaken. More than that, since we use our body and senses to take care of our needs but we do not employ our spiritual mindfulness that transcends the imaginings of our body, our physical endeavors overwhelm our mindfulness.
When a person has a nervous condition because his thought processes are damaged, physicians advise him to engage only in physical activities, without thinking, in order to calm his nerves. Then even his thoughts of physical things shrink and become less sensitive.
So when we wish to take this great step from the lowliness of the body to the work of mindfulness, we simply need to bring forth and reveal within ourselves a new and strong mindfulness, and to exercise itBjust as we bring forth a child=s ability to walk by practice.
Then we gain a double reward. Not only will a supernal mindfulness that we had never before sensed be revealed in us, but since we are working on mindfulness and strengthening it, the poisons of the bodily senses will weaken, just as physical work weakens thought. And these physical senses will themselves be transformed into the senses of the mind.
