Cutting the grass mindfully

I know this sounds silly, but in all seriousness: how would *you* cut the grass mindfully?

Being mindful during the course of the day is still very difficult for me. Maybe on a retreat it might be different, but here at home, it just ain't happening. So when I set out to cut the grass, it irks me to no end that that is a 90+ minute practice opportunity that goes pretty much wasted. Yes, I try and concentrate on my steps for a bit, but I just cannot get a good groove.

Obviously there are lots of other daily chores that each of us does that could/should be done mindfully, but this is my particular nit, and I welcome any and all suggestions.

This kind of begs a question for me, Tom. What do you mean when you use the word "mindfully?" Does it mean paying attention to the process of cutting the lawn? Or does it mean paying attention to what is paying attention to the process of cutting the lawn? These are two very different things that I think folks use the word "mindfulness" to mean.

I think a relationship is a good analogy for me at the moment. The relationship to thoughts and sensations is either from a place where they are seen as coming and going or they appear to you, there is a distinct and clear difference. I ask who experiences? and who thinks? putting me into a mode where the sensations and thoughts are being caught followed by the question dropping away. When I notice this relationship has changed I asked the who questions again. It gets to be bit of a habit to catch thoughts and sensations.

However; I am not much of an example with regards to progress .

I like the idea of just mowing the lawn - which I actually did today btw - as just mowing the lawn. Just being there with the lawn and the mower and doing it right. See those cross-hatches? That means I went north and south and then back over it going east and west -- aka today's mindfully mowing minute, for me.

my way is to hire a gardener and then sit while he mows

but if i had to id just do the regular mahasi method:
lifting
stepping
placing
bending
turning
looking
etc
try not to miss any BIG movements

From the tone of the post, it sounds like you may be trying too hard, or being too hard on yourself, or having expectations of what being mindful *should* feel like and thus not being satisfied with what is going on right now since it doesn't measure up to that expectation.

If trying too hard: notice that you don't *make* awareness happen. Awareness happens on its own, automatically, just like the ears automatically hear sound, effortlessly. The nature of the ears is to hear, the nature of the mind is to be aware. You don't have to do anything to be mindful. You just have to be wary of indulging in those things that distract you from the mindfulness that is already here.

If too hard on yourself: Ask yourself, would you treat a good friend this way? Try rousing some metta and compassion for yourself in the face of all these struggles and annoyances.

If having trouble with expectations: Try reminding yourself that this is all about knowing what is here now, not using what is here now as a vehicle to get some place else.

It can help a lot if you can rouse genuine interest in experience. For instance, vision-- can you imagine how endlessly fascinated you would be with colors and forms if you'd been blind all your life, up til just now? You don't need to have been blind to be that fascinated, you just have to notice. Ah, so *this* is what grass smells like. This is what a lawnmower sounds like. How interesting the harmonics of large and small vibrations traveling up the arms from the motor. So this is what it feels like to be a human being tending to his property.

Not directing, demanding, insisting, expecting, looking for, judging, controlling, acquiring. But suggesting avenues of inquiry, probing, investigating, curious, interested, questioning, understanding, listening, receiving.

"'Try reminding yourself that this is all about knowing what is here now, not using what is here now as a vehicle to get some place else.'

'can you imagine how endlessly fascinated you would be with colors and forms if you'd been blind all your life, up til just now?'

'So this is what it feels like to be a human being tending to his property.'

'"

You have just helped me a great deal, friend.

This is actually where I started from. But when I make an effort to learn various systems, I tend to forget it.

Thank you.

Here's something i blogged a while ago about meditative lawn mowing. It uses the labels of Shinzen's Focus Out technique:

Yesterday when mowing the lawn, I was practicing focus on all senses when I decided to play with the labeling a bit. In stead of noticing things '˜randomly' as I usually do. I decided to narrow down the focus for each '˜grasslane'. So while mowing one lane I was focussing on Touch: noticing my hands on the lawnmower, my feet stepping in the grass, the wind touching my hands and face, my posture, sensations in my muscles '¦ Then I turned the lawnmower for the next lane and focussed on Sight: the machine, the grass, my hands, the surroundings. Then Sound: all the different layers of noise of the machine, the wind blowing in my ears, the silence when I shut down the lawnmower to remove the grass. And so on with the other labels. This focussing on one area at a time brought all kinds of new things to my attention. It was a great way to get things done without getting stuck on autopilot and letting all those boring old mindrecords play on repeat.

tomotvos: I am a newbie, but cutting the grass is actually a fairly meditatively engaging activity for me. I simply focus on relaxing into open awareness and focusing my attention on the present moment - the grass going under the front of the mower is a good spot for me to focus.

Even though the activity seems like it takes a long time while doing it, I watch impermanence and know that this activity will pass and in a future moment will be nothing more than a memory.

Thank you all for treating this seriously. I half expected this to be a zero-reply thread.

To answer some of your questions directly, or indirectly, I am using "mindfulness" as the catch-all term for "that thing you do on retreats when you are not sitting" or, more generally, "that thing you do to take your practice off-cushion". As I resolve myself to the fact that I did not get stream entry yet, I need to amp up my practice or otherwise shake things up. And as I said, that 90m of lawn cutting seems an ideal, relatively mindless, chore to not let go to waste.

I don't think I am being hard on myself, but rather just casting around for pointers on how I ought to maximize this otherwise mindless time. Note that I said mindless, and not "meditative"...when I do it currently, I find myself going off into all manner of mind loops because the chore does not take up a lot of mental cycles. Yes I notice, and yes, I return, but that seems a little too imprecise, and not "meditative" in any reasonable sense of the word.

WWMSD (What would Mahasi Sayadaw do)?

Some of you offered some great suggestions to try next week.

Tomotvos, I hear you. 1/2 hour after an experience of mowing that sounds a lot like yours, I came in and saw your post. This has been going on every week all summer. Spending so much time in cognitively engaged activities (like computer programming) where the challenges against summoning mindful presence seem formidable, mowing the lawn seems like it could be the opposite, an opportunity for simple presence. And usually for a little bit of the time it seems to go that way, like meditation in motion. And it's usually gorgeously sensual for the scant moments that I notice: green grass and plants, warm sun and breeze on the skin, blue sky, trees! So, I'm always disappointed when I miss 90% of it off in pointless repetitive thoughts. I'll re-read the suggestions before trying again next week.