What is Mindfulness? Big Picture.

What is mindfulness? And specifically, what is this practice that we’re doing every morning?

At its heart, this practice is about knowing ourselves fully—every corner of our internal world—and recognizing that this self-knowledge leads to profound freedom. It’s mindfulness, yes, but it’s more than just a buzzword or surface-level awareness. It’s a journey into the depths of who and what we are.

Two Lessons: "You Weren’t Seeing the Whole Thing" and "You Are the Whole Thing"

I shared two images today as little spoilers for this discussion. The first says, “You weren’t seeing the whole thing.” This is the realization that there is more to existence, more to reality, than what we initially perceive. Our initial view of the world is incomplete—limited by our biases, habits, and unexamined assumptions.

The second panel says, “You are the whole thing.” This is the deeper insight that comes when we practice consistently: the realization that the universe and us are not separate. The "out there" and "in here" are reflections of each other. In the image, the person and the universe are both made of the same little glittering stars. This beautifully captures the essence of what we’re exploring.

The Mind Model: Seven Levels of Being

We work with a mind model that has seven levels:

7. Awareness
6. Thinking
5. Emotions
4. Body
3. Life
2. Being/Matter
1. Empty

From bottom-to-top this is a model of evolution/consciousness. From top-to-bottom it is the path of our practice.

This model is a map for understanding the entirety of what we experience—everything in the external universe and the internal world of the mind. Our practice is about moving through these levels, turning our awareness inward, and experiencing them fully.

What’s out there—this vast, complex universe—is mirrored in here, within us. And what’s in here is our only way of knowing what’s out there. The two are inseparable.

The Unique Human Capacity for Reflection

What makes us unique is our ability to turn our awareness inward. All creatures experience the external world, but humans can reflect, observe their own thoughts, and explore their inner landscape.

This reflective capacity is both a gift and a responsibility. It allows us to understand that everything we encounter—from a star in the sky to an emotion in our heart—must be processed through the lens of our inner experience. This is why our practice focuses so much on the internal world: because by understanding it, we unlock the key to everything.

Moving From Knowledge to Experience

There’s a difference between knowing something intellectually and experiencing it directly. A physicist may understand the mechanics of the universe, and a biologist may understand life, but that doesn’t necessarily bring peace of mind. It’s not enough to learn about life from the outside; we must know it from the inside.

Our practice takes us from intellectual understanding to embodied experience. By bringing awareness to our body, emotions, thoughts, and the deeper layers of our being, we come to know ourselves—and, by extension, the universe—as a whole.

The Goal: Freedom

Why do we do this? Because in this knowing is freedom.

Freedom from stress. Freedom from unnecessary suffering. Freedom from the second arrow.

The first arrow—the inevitable pains and challenges of life—will always be there. But once we understand ourselves fully, once we see that we are the whole thing, those first arrows lose their sting. The premises that create suffering dissolve, because they no longer make sense.

The Practice in a Sentence

Our practice is to use the unique human capacity for awareness to fully explore, experience, and understand ourselves—and through that, to realize our connection to the whole. In this process, we find clarity, peace, and freedom.

What’s out there is in here.
And knowing in here is the key to freedom out there.