Techniques and Theory
Two: Working Upon the Mind
Ideally, this service of mindfulness should begin from below and rise upwards. In other words, at first a person should purify his body. Then his thought will automatically be purified and strengthened. But one should not begin by working on one=s mind.
And so in earlier generations, people began by working on and purifying their bodies. Having completely purified their bodies so that they experienced a body that is subservient to holiness, they would arrive at the work and purification of mindfulness. This was the superior path.
However, now, in our generation of Athe heels of the messiah,@ a dwarfish generation, a generation of Aheels,@ this is not so. Our bodies are weak, and this is the cause of a great lack of self-control, an inability to rule over ourselves and our bodies. If in these days a person were to begin his service by purifying and sanctifying his body, he would attain nothing. His body would not be purified, and certainly not his thought, which he would never even touch upon or attempt to purify and strengthen. His body would remain in its state of dwarfishness and darkness, repellent and rejected.
Thus, we must begin our work with mindfulness.
And so we have called our group the Society for Positive Mindfulness. Its purpose is to strengthen and reveal a good thought within us, to perfect it and expand it so that it not remain a wispy, momentary flash of a spark that is swiftly extinguishedBbut that it will become pure and strong, until it will subjugate the entire body, until it will subsume all bodily senses, appearing and ruling in us.
I will demonstrate that we do not first have to sanctify our bodies.
Does every individual suddenly sanctify his entire body right before shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah or on Yom Kippur? Certainly not. Nevertheless, we see that a strong thought can even subjugate and sanctify a body that has not been sanctified.
And if that is the case, why should we allow mindfulness and its mighty spirit to sleep and rot in its lethargy within ourselves?
