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I sometimes use the example of a dial-up connection to the Internet compared to a cable modem to describe the felt difference between deliberate mindfulness and effortless mindfulness. In deliberate mindfulness, you could think of it as dial-up networking, where you have to make an effort to get connected, where often the connection keeps getting disconnected and you have to reestablish it. In effortless mindfulness, the connection is always present. No dial-up is necessary. It just is. We are already connected. Things are already exactly as they are and we are already who we are. The realizing of it is always less than a breath or a heartbeat away. In fact, not even that far. No distance at all.
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Excerpted from the book Coming To Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Copyright © 2005 Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. Published by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved.
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Kabat-Zinn, J. Mindfulness. Mindfulness 6, 1481–1483 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x