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MINDFULNESS IN CHAN

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE of Chan, everything is spiritual practice, not only sitting on a meditation cushion. Practice is the moment you wake up until the moment you sleep, every single moment. How you brush your teeth, how you spit the water, how you pee, how you walk, how you close the door, how you eat—everything is a practice.

There is a Buddhist word for this in English: mindfulness. It has become very popular recently and has even moved outside the Buddhist sphere into realms that have more to do with Western psychology than Buddhism. The Buddhist practice of mindfulness originally comes from the Sutra of Mindfulness in the Pali Canon, which talks about mindfulness’s four foundations. Buddha discussed these in his teaching, which became central in the Vipassana practices of the Theravada tradition.

Mindfulness has several meanings in Chan. One is simply to be attentive and aware. Which begs the question: What is it that we are attentive to and what should we aware of? In Chan practice, we have many types of mindfulness that apply not only to monasteries or on religious retreats but serve us well in daily life.

 

THE FIRST TYPE of mindfulness is mindfulness of time. What does that mean? It does not mean that you keep looking at your watch to see what time is it. Neither is it constantly looking at the clock and thinking, “When is my lunch break? I’m really hungry.”

Mindfulness of time simply means to be aware of what is happening in the present moment. When we become aware of what is happening in the present moment, then we can actually engage with the present moment. And when we engage with the present moment, then we give attention to it.

In simple words, what does this mean? It’s time for you to wake up, so you wake up. It’s time to go to work, you go to work. When it’s time to eat, eat; when it’s time to sleep, sleep. In short, mindfulness of time simply means to be punctual.

Chan also practices mindfulness of space. You are attentive and give attention to space with your body, speech, and mind. For example, in your home you should be aware of the environment. Don’t bump into walls. Don’t stomp up and down the stairs. Return things to their place. Be mindful of space by replacing what you take from where you took it.

In Chan, we stress keeping your living area tidy and neat. When you wake up, you make your bed and tidy up the bedroom. When you use the living room or kitchen, don’t leave things lying around. When you are leaving a place after you have used it, make sure it is clean and tidy. Leave it the way you found it. Turning off the light to save energy is mindfulness of space.

When you leave the room and close the door, do it slowly and gently so that you don’t create a loud sound and disturb others. This is mindfulness of bodily action. Walk slowly and gently. This is also mindfulness of bodily action with regard to the relation of the space in which we live.

In our practice of mindfulness, there comes another quality of mind training, and we call this precision. In the cultivation of Chan, we have to be very precise. We pay attention to all the details. We are attentive.

Every step is a mindful step. Every moment is a mindful moment. Every breath is a mindful breath.

If you practice the mindfulness of breath, and yet your kitchen is a mess and your bed is unmade, that is a little bit weird.

Pay attention to detail; fold your towel; smooth the cover on your bed; scrub the kitchen counter; clean the knives; put the cups away; hang up your clothes; don’t drop things on the floor; sweep up your crumbs.

This is precisely what sustains our spiritual life.

I always tell my students and disciples that if you cannot even do small things, then you won’t be able to accomplish much. Without attention to small details, big accomplishments aren’t possible. Everything starts small and it goes a long way. That is why in Chinese we have a saying: “A fine stream of water will flow very far.”

If there is a fine stream, lots of people can benefit from it: taking water, washing, bathing, cooking, and drinking. If there is a big gush of water in a flood, it destroys houses and devastates the land.

When we take care of every detail of our daily life that is the real spiritual practice. The practice becomes something real, not something that is separate from your life, separate from who you are. Very often people think that life is one thing and spiritual or religious practice is another. But that is not case in Chan. Our life is precisely the practice, and the practice is precisely this moment, the present moment.

Often our mind is very big, very ambitious. As a result, we don’t take care of small things. We only want big things—the grand, the lofty, the transcendent. That is not Chan.

In Chan, everything is most important. Is there one moment that is more important than any other moment? No. Every moment is the same.

Take care of all details in your daily life mindfully with a gentle resolve.