I keep coming across references these days to the idea of “mindfulness”. I’ve never been very clear about exactly what this implies, despite having had a good friend for many years who was a Buddhist. (I gather that the root idea here comes from that religion.) Frankly, however, the more I think about it the more puzzled I become.
The experience of behaving “mindfully” sounds, in some descriptions, as if one were permanently in a state of slight intoxication. It seems to imply that one is in that condition when it is necessary to concentrate very carefully upon simple tasks, especially if other people are present, so that nobody will suspect that you have had a little too much to drink.
Maybe I’m trivialising something that is quite important, but I wonder whether mindfulness is actually my normal state of being. My wife often complains that I can miss entirely things she has said, and the reason is (at least, this is my take on it) that I am being extremely mindful of whatever else it is that I am doing at the time. Is it possible to paint, for example, in a mental state than cannot be described as “mindful”? Perhaps I’ve not quite understood. Explanations would be welcome.