#365 Essential Basic Principles EXPERIENCED

     It's quiet remarkable how long and earnestly people (- I -) can practice mindfulness, before "really getting it" - directly experiencing, a fairly basic principle. It's obviously "basic" ONLY on a conceptual, NOT experiential level! To really KNOW something, we must learn it with our whole heart-mind-being.
       Speaking mindfully with someone - as a specific mindfulness practice - not worrying about the length of silent intervals between speech, one sees one's own compulsion to avoid "dead air" by filling it with words - anything but silence! Yet, describing only what one feels physically & emotionally, as it arises, gives one the opportunity to listen more deeply - and certainly listen longer - than one has ever done before.

     This (Insight Dialogue) practice is just one more way of seeing how we struggle mightily to escape our imperfection, trying to hide in distraction, idle chatter, concepts, theories, being right etc, etc, etc. But with a good practice partner, one gradually finds that it's OK to be human like everyone else. Perfection is a theory, while we're very real, and very imperfect, ... AND that too is OK. 

ki11ua   www.dpreview.com