Sunny Side Up: The true goal of mindful living – learning to live in the present

It is to learn to live in the present, not in fear of the future or mired in the past. Photo: TNS

When I was learning how to be mindful during stays at a Buddhist monastery, I was really working to avoid painful experiences. Turning up at the gates outside the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England, I thought to myself, “Here’s where I can learn to be peaceful and content, joyful and compassionate.”

On reflection, I had similar misguided notions when I first took a karate class. I thought I’d soon learn to fly through the air like Bruce Lee, but in reality I spent much of the first year learning not to trip over my own feet.