Unmindful people allow their minds (more at 'thoughts') to almost always slip away into various kinds of diversions and imaginings. This is a very bad habit that is difficult to get people who want to study Zen to break.
On a personal level, being mindful of things closest to you is difficult to master. The simple act of opening and closing a door, for example, is done almost unconsciously by everyone without any kind of awareness or mindfulness. Working in the kitchen, too, is done almost unconsciously while one’s thoughts are engaged with something else unrelated to the task of making a cup of coffee, for example. When the dishes are being washed the pots and pans are carelessly banged around. One's thought are in some other world.
It is as if one is refusing to be engaged with what they are doing—living a half-ass life instead. Such people—the unmindful ones—are certainly not like a skilled craftsman or someone like a great welder or a good automobile mechanic who, when they work, have their minds engaged on the task at hand. The unmindful people have never been trained in mindfulness which if you have been in the military is taught to you in bootcamp in a most intense way.
Zen practice or gongfu not only demands the adept’s mindfulness in doing the most mundane tasks but it also applies to being deeply engaged with trying to intuit pure Mind which lies within each of us. This pure Mind hides in our mental activity—but we are unable to see it try as we might. It is as if we are being mesmerized by our very own thoughts unable to let go of a single thought which hides pure Mind. Also, we seem to be fighting against keeping our attention focused, when we should be saying to ourselves, “Where is the pure Mind? Keep looking!”
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