Elementary Mindfulness

Generally, as humans, we are fairly unmindful most of the time. The majority of people aren’t even aware of something like mindfulness, and so when they encounter it for the first time there is some confusion as to what is being referred to. Most know what mindlessness is, and they would accept lacking intelligence, being stupid, and not requiring any thought or skill, as being quite acceptable comparisons. But does that mean that the opposites are what being mindful are all about? Not necessarily, and being aware of what is happening, as it is happening, or being present in the moment, with the moment, for the moment, are probably better ways of defining it.

But, one needs to realise that it is doing so, without engaging in the moment, or getting caught up in it. A good example would be a cat which is trying to catch a bird. The cat is fully focused on the bird, but it is also fully aware of its’ surroundings. It is a case of having bare or pure attention, where the bare and pure refer to keeping it as it is, without adding anything, deducting anything, or discriminating about it in any way what so ever. It means not analysing, interpreting, or judging the observation. Keeping it plain and simple. Thus having interest, without engaging, and observing everything as it arises or occurs, but without trying to discover its source, or purpose, or meaning. You recognise it, and then you let go.

It would appear the one person in modern times that could best do this, was none other than fictions greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. And those who are very familiar with Doyle’s stories and text, will know that Holmes’s only religious interest was as an eclectic religious seeker, especially regarding Eastern belief systems. In “The Sign of Four” Watson speaks of Holmes having made a study of many aspects, and considering the study of Hinayãna Buddhism could initially seem rather strange, until one looks a bit further. This oldest form of Buddhism, considered to be the most accurate or closest to what the Buddha taught in his time, demonstrates the Buddha as being rational, cool, calm, emotionally somewhat distant or removed, and intellectually strict and rigorous; unflinching at all times, yet wise or apparently all-knowing.

And as such even Holmes is at times described as sitting cross-legged on the floor, like some strange kind of Buddha. And when he was having his three-year absence, when everybody thought him killed by Moriarty, two of those years were spent in Tibet, or as it is quoted he “amused himself by visiting Lhasa and spending some days with the head lama”. And it is also after this time that he ceased needing to use drugs to calm his mind, possibly due to having completed his Buddhist initiation and becoming proficient in observing his mind, and his surroundings. Thus he managed to take control of his mind and becoming all-aware, thus able to observe without engaging or getting caught up in anything in any way.

There are many instances where Holmes demonstrates his mindfulness, by explaining in great detail how he arrived at the conclusion that he arrived at. And at least once Watson is found to be of the opinion that he himself would, at the very least should, be capable of doing exactly what Holmes himself is doing. As he points out, his eyes are as good as Holmes’, and he also says, “when you give your reasons, the thing appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that even I can do it myself, though at every instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you explain your deductive process.  And this is when Holmes reveals: “Indeed you see, but you do not observe.”

Because people generally see without observing, and hear without listening, they in addition also get caught up in trivia, thus allowing themselves to be deluded in to what is relevant and what is not. Humans are so prone to discriminate and try to add value to every experience, instead of just experiencing, and then letting go. ‘All’ humans tend to think that there is one reality that they have to try and analyse, in order to be able to understand it, and hopefully be able to fit in or adjust to. But in reality there is no reality, only perception. And what we perceive, together with our prior programming (experiences) forms our very own reality.

True enough, there are certain realities which more than one individual hold as true, like for example global reality, societal reality, national reality, and consensual reality, to name a few. But at the end of the day it all begins with and boils down to perception. And perception is dependant on the initial input, i.e. what we hear and see, but more importantly what we observe and listen.

Having said that, one needs to realise that all our perceptions are dependant on our sense faculties, our seeing, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and cognitive or reasoning abilities. They are what allow us to experience our surroundings most of the time. How well we perceive those surroundings, and how much information we obtain, how much wisdom is subsequently able to develop, that depends entirely on our mindfulness. And for most people this means seeing things the way Watson sees them, whereas Holmes knows, like the Buddha did, that anybody can reach insight merely by being mindful.

Five aspects that should be taken into consideration, which come directly from Sherlock Holmes, are that Nothing is Little, Notice what you See, The Ordinary is Deceptive, The Bizarre is not necessarily Mysterious, and finally Presume Nothing.

Early on in his career Holmes tells Watson that “they say genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains”, but considers it to be a rather inapt definition. Yet he felt that it did hold true for detective work, where the pains, as he explains to a befuddled policeman is, that “to a great mind, nothing is little.” The little things are the indicators as to what ultimately is important. After all, everything is trivial once viewed in hindsight, but, eternity consists of these trivia piled high. If one does not allow oneself to add anything to what is not there apparently, then one should arrive at what is only there.

When it come to ‘noticing what one sees’, there is a little interlude where Watson remarks that Holmes draws his deduction from details ‘quite invisible’. But Holmes does not accept this and replies “not invisible, but unnoticed”. So even once we accept that the little things are important, we still need to ‘notice’ what we are seeing. It is also written “the world stands before us in perfect clarity; it is our lenses (senses) of attention that are clouded and obscured. And this is essentially what the Buddha also always alluded to, that we all have Buddha nature, we all have the potential for enlightenment, but due to ignorance and delusion we do not realise it. Our mind is like a mirror, which has collected a layer of dust. Due to the obscuration it is unable to reflect anything. But just because it is now unable to reflect, does not deprive it of its potential to reflect. And if only a small area is cleaned, that is like a realisation, like an awakening, and if the entire surface were cleaned, that would be like enlightenment.

During an interlude in The Hounds of Baskervilles, when friends deduce that Watson had been in his club all day, and after their reasoning is explained he replies “well, it is rather obvious”. And to this Holmes utters, “the world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes”. And this is also where the saying of not seeing the wood for the trees comes from, where in the world of the intimately familiar we readily lose sight of what is important. Holmes further said: “There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.

Most humans are so caught up in their delusion, their comfort zones, that any attempt at breaking free and growing is quite inconceivable. The mere fact that the majority live most of their days either in the past or in the future, and the complete futility of this, eludes them. They are so convinced that in order to grow they have to regurgitate the past countless times, and they also have to enact (plan) the future a myriad times, before anything beneficial can possibly come from it.

(initially written 4/2002)

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