When I talk about mindfulness and mention non-intellectual, non-thinking aspect of it I see some kind of panic and trepidation in people’s eyes. I see doubting and ridiculing the idea of existence without thinking. Our mind simply can’t imagine such a state as useful and honorable one. “Think!”-is an order we all here from early life, and we need to prove that we do it at all possible times and situations. We learn how to be logical and rational. We love scientific approach to the mystery of life. We admire and enjoy science.
Of course the thinking mind with all the accumulated knowledge is a wonderful and important tool and we need it. But it is only a tool and only one of many aspects of human being. We have given it the leading role and established the tyranny of thinking. We are afraid that our feelings and sensations untamed by intellect will cause some disaster and catastrophe in our lives. We are stiff scared of wild and powerful nature of emotions.
In mindfulness meditation we make an experiment of freeing that scary stuff from a control of intellect. We allow ourselves to feel what we feel when we feel it. No judging and justifying involved. The space of meditation supplies safety to this experiment. It is performed within the inner world of a person; no family, no colleagues and no neighbors need to be asked to join. And the intellect-the thinking is also dismissed. For once we can do something without supervision of the great inner critic. Understanding is not required, only feeling. We are not going to act on this sensation and we are not going to suppress it. We are simply going to have a look and listen to it. I admit that it takes a lot of courage and curiosity. But it has a magical effect of adding space and air to life. It removes limitation and control performed by thinking; and it is extremely liberating. It is mindfulness.