How Mindfulness Can Help You to Live in the Present: Rev. Takafumi Kawakami at TEDxKyoto (Transcript)

Rev. Takafumi Kawakami

Rev. Takafumi Kawakami – TRANSCRIPT

So how many of you have found the secret to success and happiness? Hmm… But we all know what it is, don’t we? As great Zen masters teach, it’s staying connected with our smartphone. But do these distractions really make us effective or make us happier? Or in this case, maybe burned out.

So today, together, right here, let’s take a step to a more mindful life. Mindfulness has been a part of Buddhist traditions for many centuries. It’s a practice and a way of thinking that help us be present with our experience in a nonjudgmental way.

So, where are your thoughts right now? I hope your mind is here. However, most of the time, our mind is somewhere else. It is somewhere in the past or in the future. So we suffer more because we’re either stuck on something that happened in the past or worry about something that hasn’t happened yet.

So if you are present, you are free from such suffering. But also, your action at the present moment can create your past and determine your future. So that’s why being in the present is very powerful. Also it’s important to keep your objective point of view.