The basic idea of my MMM for next week’s Parsha Mishpatim is Mindfulness. In Mishpatim there are a lot of examples of a person being very connected-up with a state of anti-mindnoise and and pro-mindfulness.
For example, it’s expressed as keeping your mind free from deception
and falseness, from bribery, and from doubts. There’s an allusion to the
Patriarchs who were able to understand what G-d wanted before the Torah was
even given, like an infant knows when it needs nutrition, with no intellectual
knowledge of it.
Ultimately, our mindfulness is meant to be an inner guide to
what we need to be doing, and what G-d wants for us and from us at all times.
In the first half of the Parsha it talks about the
legalistic judgments, a constriction-type approach to Torah, “do this and don’t
do that” part of it.
But the second half of the Parsha is more expansive. It
talks about accepting sight unseen whatever G-d wants to give us and trusting
and being open to it. That, in itself, is sort of the Torah’s recipe for Mindfulness.
Meaning, to go into a place of self-discipline and constriction, which automatically
leads to a place of expansion.
Those are some of the ideas that lead me to the concept of
Mindfulness, one of my favorite concepts, and one I chose to focus on in the
last Jewish year. I dedicated a partnership with a friend to try to be in a
place of Mindfulness 24/7, with all kinds of directions and meditations, and I
loved every minute of it.
When a person is in a place of focus and presence and being
connected with nothing else but what’s in front of them at the time, then the
day goes in a whole different way. That person’s attachment to quality, deeply
conscious living is unsurpassed.
here is an essential drive inside of me to get back to that
place now. Some of the manifestations of a place of Mindfulness for me are – I am
happy, peaceful and feel no resistance. I radically accept whatever is given to
me. I walk in whatever is, and my mind is much more expansive, much more whole
and focused on Now. But Now is a product of what was and what is and what will
be.
I also feel that every new situation is a mystery and a
wonder because life is a wonder. Life is Perfect As-Is. Many times, without
even realizing it, I am saying Thank You to Hashem and I’m appreciating the
power of silence and the depth at which silence feeds our words and our
actions.
I am watching life unfold in a purposeful way for me because
I’m focused on it. That perspective changes everything. It changes the way I
speak, the way I do my MMMs, the way I’m learning Torah, the way I write poetry
and what I know and resonate with.
hose are just some of the benefits of being in a place of
Mindfulness.
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