“Wait”

We stop and look at the sign and look back at our Spiritual Guide

Me: “This says the Path of Mindfulness. We already went down this Path didn’t we?”

Spiritual Guide: “That was the Path of Intention”

_{^{With an obvious annoyance and frustration in my voice}}.
Me:” And?”

Spiritual Guide: “Oh my friend, you see your Intentions may be good, but you still lack the Mindfulness of your words and actions“

While we work on trying to set our Intentions to good sattvic modes we also need to be Mindful of how our actions, tone, words, or inactions affect those around us.

Being Mindful is recognizing the emotions, the physical reactions or the words expressed by others and adjusting our Intentions to work with the situation.

Just trying to help!

Time and circumstances matter. Ever do something and upset someone and your defense was “I was just trying to help!”

Sometimes even when we are as gentle as we think we are, we can end up being more like a scaly baby dragon in a store full of glassware.

The Path of Mindfulness is about breaking free from Maya Expresses core training of “how does this affect me?”, and switches to, “how do I affect everything around me?”.

Too often we are less Mindful of what we say or do and more intent on doing what we think is the best solution. Regardless of how it affects those around us.

Over the years has anyone told your tone matters? I used to hear it often. Many times, our Intentions get lost in our tone and inflection. We must be Mindful of the audience of our words we are giving our tone too. As well as the choice in words we use.

Many times when we aren’t being Mindful of our Intentions the good part of our Intentions erode into a tone of attitude, sarcasm, and raised blood pressures. Sometimes Maya warps us to even relish in “just being the a**hole” and find ways to justify it in the mode of goodness.

Moral Grey Area

Many times, while our Intentions may be good, the results aren’t always positive for everyone. Maya Express loves to deploy the infamous tool “moral grey area” when we are walking our Path.

There are times when we have to make decisions that are not going to be the right answer to everyone. The question becomes then how do we know which one is the right answer during these obstacles sent forth by Maya?

That is where the Path of Mindfulness shines most. The biggest key to being Mindful most is “how does this affect my Spiritual Path”

”Wait”

_{*I stop and pause. shaking my head.}

Me:” Wait, didn’t you just say that the Path of Mindfulness is about how it affects others, not myself?”

Spiritual Guide: “Yes, but when the obstacles thrown at us by the Maya Express comes up, the question must be ‘Is this positive on my Spiritual Path’”

Me: “I still don’t fully understand. Like cop shows where they cross the line to get the bad guy. Is that not positive?”

Spiritual Guide:”Crossing a moral line to justify punishing someone under man’s law is never positive. Man’s laws can never rise above morals.

Let’s say he does the bad stuff.

Breaks a leg to get the good guy stuff. Then the bad guy never gets caught, or they die before they get caught by the good guy. Maybe the good guy passes before the bad guy is caught. What exactly are they justifying the action for now?”

Me:”They could say they they are just following orders”

Spiritual Guide:”Only Love goes with you to the next life, that includes the people you feel are responsible for your actions.”

The idea that “following orders” is a valid response to the morality of a question only works if your Spiritual Guide is the one giving the orders. For they are the only ones we should lean towards for the morality questions of our choices.

A person of power is not our Spiritual Guide; nor are they ever someone who will determine the morality of our choices at the end of the day.

If it’s our time to leave this lifetime and move on to the next train cart, we need to be able to explain to our Spiritual Guide the choices we made. They won’t be bringing your supervisor in to take responsibility for your immoral actions.

Any person of power telling you to break your moral code, in order to follow a man-made law or code, is doing so from inside the Maya Express. They are not on your Spiritual Path. More often or not, this is when we are pretending to walk our Spiritual Path ourselves, from inside the train.

Apologize

The Path of Mindfulness also comes with it the responsibility to apologize and mean it.

When we are walking this Path we need to recognize there are times in our past that our words, actions, or inactions affected others in a negative light.

Whether we meant to cause the negative light, does not matter to the Path of Mindfulness.

Whether the past no longer affects our present and future, it could still be affecting others.

Whether we wish the subject matter would just be dropped, is not always up to us.

The Path of Mindfulness says, “it doesn’t matter if you think a past incident is resolved. If it isn’t for the other person, then you must decide how to work around the results of past actions, and not demand the other side get over it.”

Whether it’s been a day, a month, a decade. The Path of Mindfulness tells us to always be Mindful of who we were to this person in the past; as well as how can I make the present better.

The Path of Mindfulness says “You are responsible for how you treat them right now. It doesn’t matter how you and the others interacted in the past. This is now. It doesn’t even matter how they are treating you right now. It matters how you react.”

The best way to protect yourself and distance yourself from having to deal with conflict as often is to be Mindful of those around you.

Association

Spiritual Guide “This includes being Mindful and responsible for the people we surround ourselves with.”

Me:”What do you mean? Shouldn’t we be friends with everyone? Not being friends with someone because of difference in opinions seems material world not Spiritual Path stuff”

Spiritual Guide:”You are asked to Love all. You may be asked to forgive all. That does not mean you must associate with all.

The Maya Express affects everyone differently. No matter how similar an event is for everyone, the result and how it affects each of us, depends the level of darkness we still have on our train cart and the progress made along our Spiritual Path.”

Those whose train cart appears dark and not on their Path have a tendency to want to remain in this darkness. I should know, I spent the first forty-one years of my life in this darkness. Refusing to even enter areas of Spiritual Progress, even when my kids attending VBS. I always believed in allowing them to figure their own way. But I wanted to stay in my darkness.

The Path of Mindfulness is about being mindful if “others are on their Path” or “sitting on the dark train of Maya” and then decided how to proceed.

It doesn’t mean ignore them. It means being Mindful of their influence on you. Those closest to us will shine the brightest on our Path. They can also darken the road as well. As we walk down our Path, we know we can’t force others to even see our Path. We have tried.

It just means we still have to walk our Path, whether they continue to associate with us or not, depends on both their Spiritual progress and our own. They may progress further along than us, or we may as well.

Me:”Why is the Path of Association so crucial to the Path of Mindfulness?”

Spiritual Guide:”Peer pressure. How many times do we ebb our morals for our friends? They can influence everything in our life.

Good Association will have a positive impact on all Mindful matters of your life. They will either encourage you to walk your Path or dissuade you and try to tempt you off the Path.“

It’s not always the people and objects around us that we must be Mindful about though. We have to be Mindful of what we do to ourselves as well.

Mindful Eating?

I have talked before about cooking and the many ways to use it to express Love.

Consuming food on our Path can be done Mindfully as well. Some people are forced into being Mindful of their foods. Whether health or dietary reasons we all sometimes try to be Mindful of our eating habits.

Many religions institute a Path of Mindful Eating as a practice to bring us back to our Spiritual Path. Muslims have Ramadan, Catholics have Lent, in Bhakti we have Ekadashi. Most organized religions have some form of fasting.

All used to curb our diet and make us concentrate on our Spiritual Paths more.

Many say prayers before meals.

My practice of Bhakti goes even further. We offer our food to God / Krishna at the altar. The food is blessed by God removing the Karma tied to the lost plant souls in making of the meal.

My Path of Mindfulness includes having to decide if I’m going to consume a meal that is offer-able to Krishna or not.

Doesn’t mean I won’t consume it. But it means I have to acknowledge it is not in the mode of goodness but passion before consuming it. I do this for everything I consume.

Catch 22

Me: “The Path of Mindfulness seems like a lot of work. I’m supposed to think about all that every time I say or do things?”

Spiritual Guide: “In order for the Path of Mindfulness to not feel like a lot of work, you have to be more mindful of how your day-to-day actions affect your Spiritual Path”

_{^{*with a little chuckle and sarcasm*}}
Me:”That sounds like a catch-22”

Spiritual Guide: “There are plenty of tools in your arsenal already at your disposal to assist you along the way. We have learned about many of them already.”

• Create your Routines to keep you Mindful of your Spiritual Path
• List your Gratitude every morning to be Mindful of those events and people that make your life better. Even on the Darkest days.
• Be Mindful of others darkness and shine a light a little on those around you with smile and wave.
• Talk to your Spiritual Guide often. Be Mindful of who you see you should answer to if today is your last day.
• Be Mindful that your Intentions are good and sattvic.
• Be Mindful of when you are wrong and don’t be afraid to be a hypocrite.
• Try to find even the smallest ways to be of Service (Seva) to others as a way to be Mindful of how we can always impact others lives positively.

• Most importantly be mindful of your Mental Health and make it YOUR top priority.

The Transcendental Sound

_{^{*distant sounds of Mridangam start beating.* *singing and dancing can be heard.*}}

Me: “Sounds like a party. Singing, dancing, but it isn’t coming from the Maya Express”

Spiritual Guide: “Ah. Time to let down your frustrations and anxiety my friend. That’s the Path of Music”

Yours Forever Grateful.