Looking At Mindfulness By Christophe Andre [Book Summary & Analysis]

25 Ways To Live In The Moment Through Art

Looking At Mindfulness By Christophe Andre.: 25 Ways To Live In The Moment Through Art

About the Author:

Christophe Andre is a French psychiatrist and bestselling author who has practiced meditation for many years. He runs meditation groups at the Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, helping people free themselves from suffering and enjoying their lives. After many highly acclaimed books, this is his most original and personal work.

In Looking at Mindfulness, Andre lays out 25 ways one can live in the present moment through art.

Looking At Mindfulness: 25 Ways to Live in The Moment Through Art by Christophe Andre Book Summary.

.: Step 1: LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT

Andre believes, mindfulness is not about creating emptiness, instead its more like intensifying your presence in the moment, allowing the present moment to be what is, rather than escaping it or trying to change it through thought or action. 

In the present moment, says Andre, everything is perfect. Nothing more is needed for this moment to feel complete.

When we opened up our eyes to this reality, we then free ourselves from thoughts of the future or past.

Feel instead of thinking.

Andre reminds that the secret Is in the feeling. Or as writer, and mystic Neville Goddard would say, feeling is the secret.

“Mindfulness does not react to what it sees.” observed a Buddhist master, “It simply sees and understands without words.”

Sometimes words can do nothing to help us express the complexity of what we feel, says Andre, and can even hinder, falsify or spoil our experience.

The intensity of the experience

Mindfulness teaches us that experience is as vital as knowledge. Writes Andre,

“However, he says reading about mindfulness, is not the same as practicing it.”

He advices us to stop and feel.

Look, and listen.

Become aware.

Living means living in the present moment. We can’t live in the past or future; they are times we can only think and speculate about. Being regularly present to the riches in the moments that make up our lives means— living more. —Christophe Andre

.: Step 2: TAP INTO THE BREATH 

Our breath is the anchor that connects us to the present moment. The practice of breath work does not change reality, explains Andre, but how we experience it.

The lessons of breath

“The breath teaches us about humility,” explains Andre,. It is a voluntary and an involuntary event that shows us we cannot control everything.

Breath is like clouds, wind, waves, and rainbows—genuine but fleeting, always there but always passing. —Christophe Andre

 .: Step 3: MEDITATE WITH YOUR BODY 

Andre reminds us that, the body and the mind are inseparable. Neither ever let go of the other. Therefore, the improvement on one, automatically affects the other.

“Body and mind are neither the same nor two separate things.” explains Andre, “Instead, they are two different but very closely connected realities.”

Learn to understand your bodily sensations, and to pay attention to them. Because they reflect the balance or the imbalances within.

Benefits of meditation 

The aim of meditation is to help us open up to what exists; to be present, and receiving it into our awareness, every time we engage in these practices.

Mindfulness recommends paying your body regular friendly visits, reconnecting to your sensations, observing how things are, and reviewing them calmly as you go to sleep, and whenever you have a free moment. —Christophe Andre

.: Step 4: CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LISTEN

Sounds of all kinds

We are surrounded by a constant world of sound, says Andre, which we only notice occasionally. For that reason he advices us to listening to these sounds attentively.

In doing so, we realized the complexity and beauty of these sounds. 

“They are the ancient sounds of our animal roots,” explains Andre, which is why they have such a calming effect on us.

To a bird’s song, I listen, not for the voice, but for the silence following after the song. – Yone Noguchi (Japanese poet)

Hear, listen, think…

“When we hear,” says Andre, “we adopt a receptive, “passive,” or non-interventionist attitude.” On the other hand, listening is what aroused our attention to deliberately engage with the sounds we hear. There are not the same thing. 

Notice sounds with serenity

Andre realize that “Being permanently surrounded by sound is toxic.

It adds to the accumulation of excitement imposed on us by the so-called “modern” life.” In that case, one must seek silence and quietness. 

Sounds with serenity enable us to hear and listen to all the strands of the music of life. Close your eyes and listen. Notice all the sounds. The good and the bad.

 .: Step 5: OBSERVE YOUR THOUGHTS

Observe the chattering mind, or “the monkey mind.” Notice that its always moving, and jumping from branch to branch, and never still. Don’t try to suppress your thoughts. Doing so will only makes them bounce back more intensely. Remember,  this moment is perfect.

Mindfulness tells us that it is pointless to try to block our thoughts, says Andre, or to try to seek them out. Instead, it is much better to expand our minds.

Only regular practice and experience can help us distance ourselves from what is happening in our minds and develop the habit of allowing our thoughts to evaporate. As the literary critic and essayist, George Steiner points out, “The two processes that human beings cannot bring to a halt so long as they are alive: breathing and thinking” 

Free yourself from your thoughts.

You need to understand that your thoughts are only one element of your awareness and not all of it. Therefore, it’ll be best to try to detach yourself from your thoughts, and not being dependent on them. Do so without rejecting them but by simply adopting a different relationship with them.

Overtime you’ll realize the difference between “thinking something” and “noticing that you are thinking something” will becomes clear.

 .: Step 6: MAKE SPACE FOR YOUR EMOTIONS

Andre points out that, “Our emotions don’t speak,  however they do express themselves in bodily sensations, behaviors, and extreme reflex thoughts.”

It is easier to establish this critical distance with your thoughts by noticing and observing your emotional states than by struggling to suppress them.

Emotional clarity—be willing to feel.

In mindfulness, we can notice the negative, and painful feelings, says Andre, and still allowing them to be there.” So rather than trying to drive away unhappiness and worries, we can start by accepting their presence.

Take time to feel

Instead of rushing straight from one thing to the next, Andre recommends that we slow down to feel what is happening inside us.

Doing so will gently connecting you with your emotional state.

He writes, “Our emotions are as in-escapable as our thoughts. Meaning, we can’t escape them. They don’t appear as subjective phenomena but as obvious facts that’s indisputable to reality.

.: Step 7: USE YOUR ATTENTION TO EXPAND YOUR AWARENESS

Andre define awareness as the entity that sensing and perceiving reality while knowing we are sensing and perceiving. He writes, “Awareness is undoubtedly our mind’s most delicate, and complicated function, and has been the subject of thousands of scientific studies.”

Andre explains that there are three levels to awareness.

1. The first is primary awareness. which is our impressions and sensations. For example, with this awareness, while reading these lines, you also perceive your body, the sounds that come to your ears, the movements around you, and so on. (Impressions & sensations)
2. The second level is identity awareness. In which the idea of the “self” come out from these impressions. This form of attention helps us harmonize our experiences and understand that all these sensations are ours.
3. The third level is reflective awareness. In the reflective awareness, we’re more capable of stepping back from the “self” and observing its mechanisms, its functions from a third person point of view. This awareness helps us understand and think. For example, it makes us realize we have been too selfish or become annoyed or worried.

When we integrate all three levels, that’s when mindfulness flourishes. 

• Primary awareness is critical since it enables us to understand and calm our bodies and emotions.
• Identity awareness is the starting point for observing the flow of our thoughts.
• Reflective awareness enables our mind to disengage and frees itself from its mental reflexes.

Keep your body still; Keep your voice silent; As to mind, don’t bind it: let it rest at ease. Let consciousness relax completely. -Shabkar T. Rangdrol (Tibetan Buddhist yogi and poet)

Attention vs Awareness

Andre observed that attention and awareness are two different things. Yet,  there can be no awareness without attention,—given attention is a fundamental tool of awareness.

He states that, “In attention, we ignore (what does not interest us) whereas, in awareness, we notice.”

Quality of attention

Quality of attention can only be attune in two ways: 

• Focused (narrow) attention.
• Open (wide) attention.

In focused attention, we direct a narrow beam of our attention. Whereas open or wide attention–expands to include our entire body. And so, the more our attention expands and is immersed, the closer we are to reaching mindfulness.

Conclusion

When many of our actions and our environments act to cut us off from ourselves, see that as a sign to reflect.

As Andre puts it, “Reflection means re-centering, re-inhabiting, and regaining contact with ourselves.”

So just before beginning a task, stand still for a moment and feel yourself breathe before you sit down at your desks, for instance connecting, wordlessly and with no defined intent, with the deeper meaning of our work. 

Mindful living is not without risks, and reflection soon leads us to want to shed things, not to be poorer but lighter.