The story of Jo and Maria
JO: Jo is 40. At 6:30 am and 10 or 11 pm he brushes his teeth during 5 min...without his mind!. Of course Jo is not mindless but his mind is not where this guy is and not doing what Jo's hands are doing! While Jo's body is washing the teeth, his mind is always elsewhere and doing something else such as:
1- In the traffic, at the office, with his new date, shopping, gardening, cooking, at the bar with friends.
2- His mind may travel back and forth from past to future and from future to past like a non-stop time machine for whatever reason and purpose.
3- Finally, his mind may get emotional about this or about triggering anger, resentment, worries, anxiety, desires, guilt, fears, fantasies, expectations, etc...
Jo's mind is behaving like a wild, noisy and restless wild monkey totally out of control.
Sadly enough and despite their mutual affection, Jo's mind and body are almost always totally separated, each in their own time-space-action. Jo is totally controlled by his mind rather than controlling it. He is what I call, a thinking zombie also called a day sleep walker. We all feel sorry for JO isn't.
MARIA: Maria is 30. At 6:30am and at 10 or11pm she also brushes her teeth during 5 min**.....with her mind where her body is and with her mind doing what her hands and brush are doing!. Maria learned from her meditation and teaching that, when body and mind are doing the same thing at the same time and same place, the mind becomes still, quieter and its continuous inner voice is on mute mode. She knows that forcing her mind to focus on something slows down, if not, stops the stream of thoughts and emotions. This is the miracle of mindfulness (to pay attention w/o thinking ). Maria is mindful to the current moment, the only time that exists. Maria controls her mind rather than been controlled by it. Her monkey mind has been tamed.
We are all happy for Maria. Right?.
By the way: one is "awakened" the other one needs to work harder. No bliss, no miracle, no paradise, no rapture, no ecstasy, no euphoria, no happiness, nothing sexy here.