Ants and Mindfulness

Image with gratitude to Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

A few years ago I had a surprising incident with ants on a silent meditation retreat. Our days were spent sitting, walking, sitting, walking sitting, walking and doing our best to stay present and conscious with our experience throughout the whole day. I had been struggling with sleepiness and it was a relief to be outside with my bare feet on the grass walking slowly and then standing and just feeling the breath and the air. And then a tickle on my leg. I looked down and saw that my legs were covered in ants. And to my surprise I didn’t scream and run round the garden, violently sweeping ants from my legs. In fact my first thought was

“Oh no, I must be standing on their home”.

And then I moved a couple of steps and waited patiently (and if you know me, you know that patience really isn’t a strong point for me yet) for them all to leave my legs. And I was completely calm as they slowly all found their way back to the ground. It was really rather surprising and yet really not surprising at all. Meditation and mindfulness can have a huge impact on how we relate to ourselves and the world. That is if we practice regularly and if we are prepared to take a look with a huge amount of compassion at the difficult and painful places which we normally try to avoid.

What is mindfulness anyway?

Mindfulness is a terrible word for it. After all if you have a mind that's full, you're most likely lost in thought. The Chinese character for mindfulness is the character for now, being present now, over the character for heart. It is a heart awareness; An awareness without judgement. An awareness imbued with kindness. An awareness that isn't trying to get anywhere else, it's just curious about what's here.

It's like the bestest friend you could hope for. The one that really listens and cares and doesn't tell you what to do, judge you, or try to fix you. The one who gives you the space to be exactly who you are. And who accepts who you are unconditionally.

Perhaps try a few breaths with that sort of awareness right now? Breathing and being curious and kind with whatever sensations, thoughts and feelings that arise. Everything included with kindness. Using the breath as an anchor to keep you in the present moment.

We're always aware of something, but a lot of the time, we're not consciously aware. We're not aware of being aware. Haha. Try not to be aware of anything!  Much of the time we're on auto pilot and our awareness is lost in thought. Mindfulness is the process of coming out of auto-pilot into conscious awareness. It is well worth pausing regularly during to the day to notice how you are and spend a few breaths feeling the sensations of the breath, in the nose, the back of the throat, the chest, the diaphragm, maybe the belly is moving too.

What's the point of doing mindfulness?

Firstly it's a training for the mind. Are you letting your mind run you round in circles with thoughts and worries? Mindfulness is a training of bringing it back to the focus that you choose. It builds clarity And wouldn't it be lovely to have more control over your mind? It takes practice. :-)

Secondly as you develop the awareness the experience of life gets more interesting. The sounds, the tastes, the breath, the sensory experience fills out, becomes more subtle, intricate and beautiful. And there is so much joy in this. You don't want to miss the good moments in your life because you were lost in thought!

Thirdly you learn an awful lot about the nature of being human and yourself as the specific example. I'm afraid you will find that we are definitely not rational beings. So you become your own science experiment. This is called insight. For example you may have already learnt what the mind does when you try to feel the breath? Maybe it wandered off straight away? Maybe it started judging the breath as too this or too that? You may have also noticed that the breath works all by itself and when the mind notices it, and perhaps starts to fuss the breath all of a sudden feels really uncomfortable and awkward. Unless you're a yoga practitioner and have been taught how to breathe consciously. Maybe all of a sudden you became aware of aches and pains in the body that you didn't realise existed. How funny! When the mind isn't aware of something, it's like it doesn't exist. As things come into awareness they light up and become polarised. All of these are insights into being human and very useful when you don't take them personally. Much more useful to smile at how the mind is! 

Fourthly you develop patience and compassion (and who doesn't need more patience and compassion). Patience will be developed as the mind will run off, sometimes a lot. And the practice is to bring it back patiently, persistently and with no judgement (or just being aware of the judgement thoughts without judgement - haha!). And compassion comes as you practise holding this heart awareness for all parts of yourself.  The light and the dark within us all included in the same unconditional kind awareness that just sees and seeks to understand. And there is so much healing in this.

There are of course many other benefits, but these are the most important to me. I train my mind, I learn about the mind, I have more joy in life and more kindness and compassion. And all of these just keep growing the more I practise. With the inevitable ups and downs along the way. And funnily enough it's the downs and the difficulties that tend to be the most valuable.

And you build a kinder relationship with yourself, with others and with the earth. Maybe even with ants too.

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

- Thich Nhat Hanh