How Can I Be Mindful When Everything Is Happening At Once?

Reflection On Mindfulness and Distractions

The first of my three seats is beside the largest lake on my morning walking route. It is not particularly peaceful in the conventional sense. There is almost always something happening: trees rustling, leaves falling, birds calling, water birds squawking, coots diving and ripples spreading across the surface. Sometimes a crow announces itself with a solitary ka-ka-ka, while herons occasionally pass overhead. Even the smell of water and damp earth becomes part of the experience.

There is so much sensory activity that sometimes it seems to arrive all at once. Yet this has become an excellent place to practise basic mindfulness. I can close my eyes and choose one sound to attend to, while allowing everything else to remain in peripheral awareness. I don’t need to reject the other sounds. I simply don’t need to follow them.

I notice the same thing during meditation. I may choose to contemplate one aspect of the Dhamma while allowing sounds from the open window to remain in the background.

Perhaps mindfulness isn’t about eliminating distractions. Perhaps it is learning where to place our attention while allowing the rest of life to continue around us.

Tanka

trees whisper softly
birds call across the still lake
one crow breaks the calm
I listen to just one sound
while the whole world carries on