RE: 🧘 Reflections On Monastic Training & The Benefits of Sadhana: Is the Mind Ever Really Mindful? 🧘

Thank you @julianhorack for sharing your journey. It is very enlightening to hear from someone who has gone through the training and has lived as a monk. It shows how very different life is in different parts of the world.

At 19 I was in college and married. I had heard of yogis and such, but I had no clue as to what they were or what they did. I had no clue as to what mindfulness was. Sure I would hear or be told to be mindful of my thoughts and my tongue which would simply mean watch what you say or think.

I didn't learn anything about mindfulness until 6 years ago. I had no idea how it came to be or really what it was/is. Sure I would hear stories of someone who went on a retreat in a monastery and has a new view of life, it doesn't mean I understood it. As with so much through the years, I was told this is how I needed to be, handed a pamphlet and sent on my merry way. I have had to teach myself. I had to learn skills that no one ever taught me. I didn't know what a coping skill was, but I was told I need to use them. I was told to breathe and I didn't know there was a kind of breathing that was needed. Then to meditate. I read book after book on that. It's hard reading a book that's guiding you through a meditation to then try to implement it. Life before the internet.

Am I mindful in a world view? Nope. Do I try to be? I am learning. Will I ever be? Is anyone truly? with a few exceptions. This is why when I write, I include actual situations that occurred and then try to break it down to see how to 'we' can learn from my mistake. I do not want people to suffer more than they have or have to. If I can spare 1 person from the pit or give them hope of seeing the light of day then I am doing what I have set out to do. I wasn't given the skills or even had knowledge of existence of something different.