““Mindful and creative, a child who has neither a past, nor examples to follow, nor value judgments, simply lives, speaks and plays in freedom.””
There are many Buddhist teachings and practices that highlight the subtleties and nuances of mindfulness. Beyond focusing attention solely on objects of meditation, we can also turn our attention toward the actual process of being mindful. What depth and broadening perspectives can be found as we awaken to being the reality of experience and not separate from it?
As the quote above suggests, the importance of our practice is being free with whatever arises in experience. We were this way once before our conditioning led us to add all the opinions, judgments and stories on top of experience. Joseph Goldstein tells us that if we give responsibility over to our conditioned mind, we probably find that we are looking for something special. That can mean that we are missing what is simple and overlooking what is always right in front of us.