[Avodah] Mindfulness and Being Present in the Moment

[Yonatan Kaganoff]

I was talking to my wife the other week about the following question and wanted to ask the members of the list if they had any ideas about it.
   
  Are Mindfulness or "Being Present in the Moment" Jewish values?
   
  In other words, we all know that humility (anavah), mercy (rachamim), and patience are Jewish values.  There is a long tradition within ethical (mussar), kabbalistic-ethical, and halakhic literature discussing these virtues and exploring how to aquire, retain, and develop them among many other virtues.  
   
  However, would you include Mindfulness or "Being Present in the Moment" as Jewish values?  For now, I am blurring the distinctions between them, even though they are distinct virtues.
   
  One could use the word "Kavvanah" for Mindfulness, but, traditionally, in Kabbalistic-ethical and other literature, being mindful was always about being aware of God, Sefirot, or Metaphysics and not in the sense of being fully aware of ones surroundings or being fully present in a conversation with others.  In fact there are famous passages in the writings of Rambam zt"l and the Baal Shem Tov zy"a that explicitly encourage people to be thinking of God or the Higher Realms when talking to other people.
   
  One could argue that once we know the value of being fully present in a conversation with someone else it becomes, de facto a Jewish value using the Ramban's category of "Ve'asitem ha-Yashar ve-ha-Tov" as developed by Rav Aharon Lichtenstein in his famous essay on whether Judaism believes in an ethic independent of Judaism.  If it is clear that cultivating this virtue allows one to be better at "ve-Ahavta le-Rai'acha Kamocha" and other "mitzvos bain adam le-adam," then, by definition it becomes a Jewish virtue and one worth cultivating.  
   
  However, I would argue that this is a weak answer.  And, furthermore, Judaism lacks literature which discuss this virtue and how to cultivate it.
   
  One could argue that there are many tzaddikim and talmidai chachamim, living and deceased, who are Mindful. But, I don't think that that is proof that being Mindful is a Jewish value or that Judaism encourages cultivating Mindfulness.
   
  I was recently reading/skimming Akivah Tatz's Letters to a Buddhist Jew and while Rabbi Tatz would argue that all of these virtues could be found in Judaism (I don't recall him saying so specifically, but that is often the thrust of his arguments), I am not so sure.
   
  So, therefore, I have much more sympathy for Ju-Bu's or people who turn to Buddhism for something (Mindfulness or Being Present in the Moment) that they cannot find in Judaism.
   
  Does anyone have thoughts on this matter?

       
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