Samsara (or suffering to you and me...)

The very first teaching given by the Buddha after his enlightenment was the Four Noble Truths. These are:

1. Suffering. The Buddha realised that life (in general) is painful. We go from one painful experience to another (sickness, loss of something/someone precious, aging, death, not getting what we want and getting what we don't want, etc).
   
2. The Source of suffering. Essentially, a craving of things we can't have, then being disappointed, causes us to suffer.
   
3. The end of Suffering. How we free our selves from this endless cycle of suffering is by (essentially) seeing that our cravings for things we want and can't have leads to our suffering. We must "let go" of this craving to relieve the suffering.
   
4. The path leading to the ending of suffering. This is path will free us from suffering, and this is the Eight Fold path, which is of the path of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right Mindfulness, right concentration.
   This is the basis on which Buddhism is built.

I got a very good demonstration of this cycle of suffering given to me by wife: She recently admitted to me that she had been constantly buying things of the internet and in the shops. I had come to suspect that something was happening when the post-man kept leaving delivery slips through the door (there appeared to be one a day). Naturally, I couldn't blame her, as I have a job which takes me from home a lot (a lot of nights), and she would be alone a lot (moreover, I was guilty of the same thing a couple of years back). It demonstrated very well how people believe that their next mobile, car, top, job, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, shoes, Etc will bring them all that they desire (naturally, they do bring joy, but that joy doesn't always last, as is demonstrated by the high rate of divorce in today’s society).
I too am guilty of the same thing: I have recently attended an interview for a promotion (of sorts) at work. I keep finding my self thinking "When I get the job, this will be easier..." or "Once I move upstairs, we could get a mortgage, and buy a house, and..." so on and so on. I have to constantly remind my self that there were a lot of other people applying for the jobs, and I may not get them. And if I did, it would mean leaving the job I am in now which I really enjoy (if you're wandering why I'm applying for others, I'm on a temporary contract currently due in March). It's a good mindfulness trigger. I can remain mindful that not all things are certain. This brings me onto the subject I left in my previous post: Mindfulness Training.

After many hours trawling through the internet, I have come to understand that mindfulness training is quite simply being mindful at all times. SO I have recently been trying to be mindful of my feelings, speech, actions, thoughts, etc. It's one of those exercises that seem easier than it is... But I stay mindful of my defeating mind.

Mindfulness

To further explain the following, I need to go off at a slight tangent.
Almost a year ago to the day, my wife and I had a tiff (nothing major, I really can't remember what it was about). However, I completely blew it out of all proportion by flying off the handle. Needless to say, I have a short fuse. I made it so serious (in my head) that I slept on the sofa to cool off. By the time my wife got up the next morning, I'd already left for work. Having two hours before I got there, I had too much time to stew about the night before. Fortunately, I managed to calm down, and see that it really was nothing to be mad about.
At lunch, I went out into the small town, and went to look for a book to read. I though of looking in the Psychology section for anger management. I passed a book on Meditation. I almost ignored it, but something nagged me to look closer (probably my mother who is in to all the alternative therapies). After reading the back, one phrase jumped out at me: "Deal with emotions". So I duly bought it. Over the next several months, I delved deeper in to the world of meditation, spending all my time online searching meditation. I read many books (most of which said the same things) as well as many websites. Every lunch time at work, I would meditate in a small room. It started to work (at least I think it did), I felt happier, calmer and less frustrated.
Eventually however, it petered out, to the point where I couldn't be bothered. I wanted to keep it up, but just didn't have the motivation. Then, one day, I was watching a film, and the protagonist was doing a form of Tai Chi. I'd read that Tai Chi was a form of moving meditation. So I had a go, and enjoyed it. So I kept going. I eventually joined a class led by the Taoist Tai Chi Society. I improved in leaps and bounds and quickly went on a retreat. There, I met an extraordinary man. I will not go into detail (as it's not my place to say what happened and why), suffice to say he had been 'saved' by Buddhism and helped members of his family too. This really inspired me to restart my study of the subject. So I re read a couple of books I'd read whilst exploring meditation, and made more and more sense of it. Now, I want to live by it and make an effort to incorporate it into my life.

On the second day of the retreat, I was sitting with said friend at breakfast. I told him I'd slept considerably well (considering we went to bed at 12am and got up at 7am, and had done 12 hours+ of Tai Chi the night before), however, I'd had some weired dreams. He advised that considering the amount of detail I remembered, it sounded like I would be a good candidate for Mindfulness. This is what I shall be talking about today.

Wikipedia describes Mindfulness as "the practice whereby a person is intentionally aware of his or her thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Mindfulness is applied to both bodily actions and the mind's own thoughts and feelings". But what does this mean in real life? As far as I understand it, when you walk, you're not thinking about anything else other than walking. You think entirely on walking. When you do the washing up, you feel the temperature of the water, the feel of the plate in your hand, the sound of the water splashing about. It's a state of mind that is tranquil and gentle.
I've found this process most relaxing, and can be the foundations of some of the best meditations. I try to use as much as I can as a meditation: walking to the car, washing up, taking a shower, washing the car, even writing this post. Even sitting at work, watching the world go by. It can make time fly by, or, just make you feel more in touch with the world.

Going back to my friend at the retreat, I'm not quite sure what he meant by mindfulness training, other than what I've just described. However, next time I'm working nights, I will be on the computer for a better understanding of mindfulness training. Once I have an answer, I shall post it here.

If you know what my friend meant, I will be grateful of some insight.