Water waves and candle flames

One does not need to meditate (do the postures and breathing and all that) to watch one's mind -- to be mindful.  Some, of course call any mindfulness state, a sort of meditating, even when driving down the freeway, although I tend to do it in safer places.

I think the reality is that mindfulness is really just paying attention to the state of our head a few moments earlier, I would think using short-term memory.  There is no need to posit some separate entity doing the watching.

What does one see?

Well, if you have been really meditating and have reached a point of mental silence, then one doesn't see much.  An empty mind is an empty mind and a silent mind is a silent mind.  This is a wonderful state, but not what I'm about today.

Otherwise a lot I think depends on the person.  The excitable person sees a lot more confusion than the peaceful person, a lot more activity, and probably has higher blood pressure.

We all, however see much the same thing -- a flow of consciousness -- we think about this and the thought jumps to that and then to something else, usually somewhat linked but not always.  Of course other things also intrude -- sounds, itches, memories, worries, thoughts of obligations, and, if you are at all sleep deprived, you may fall asleep.

One thing most people don't notice, because their religion tells them otherwise, is that there is no "self" there -- no soul, no little homunculus doing the watching.  The process itself watches itself.

That is what we see -- process, not thing.  It moves like a wave moves on the water or a flame on a candle (both analogies here are helpful, but don't draw too many conclusions from them).  Mind is process, not thing, that we presume happens in the thing we call brain, but there is nothing inherent in itself to tell us that.  That is something neurologists think, for pretty good reasons, but still I wonder -- a good topic for another blog someday.

The best proof, over and above the fact that being mindful in and of itself, once one is aware of what to see, proves the point on its own, is the fact that if there is a thing doing the observing, the question arises what is watching the watcher, and one ends with an infinite regression.  That's grounds for rejecting almost any theory.