In a way, mindful living is ultimately an ongoing quest for unity. The late Gordon Allport talked about this search for unity and believed that it was at the heart of all religious or spiritual inclinations. It is the desire to see the interconnectedness between everything, but it is also the need to be unified with one's self, as well as the desire to find unity in both our own life experiences and in the whole universe.

This idea is in many of the world's religions. It is very much like the Hindu idea of finding God in oneself, in everyone, in every living creature or in everything on this earth. Or, as in Judaism, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord". Or the idea of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost in Christianity. In Buddhism there is the idea of non-self, the actual physical fact that we are made up of everything from our direct ancestors; to the sun, the rain and the earth's minerals in our foods, to atoms in the air that we breath into our bodies from the atmosphere. We can see we are all a part of everything else and therefore have no separate self.

All spiritual or religious paths have an emphasis on the right way of living. Hinduism stresses this through Dharma (the Truth or the Living Law) and karma in which we are responsible for our actions and therefore their results. In Islam, God is Creator of the whole universe and absolute unity and power resides in God. The Koran stresses that life on earth is a test and a preparation for the life to come again, responsibility for our actions. Taoism (which means `The Way' or course of life) stresses the integral unity of mankind and the natural order of things. In Buddhism, freedom from life's suffering is achieved by the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of right understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, awareness (mindfulness) and concentration. Again, the emphasis is on responsibility for our own actions. Isn't it wonderful that we define our religious beliefs or our spirituality in such different, but ultimately similar, ways?

The one thing that comes out of all this for me is our personal responsibility in life. This is something that I wrote about last weekend in this column, personal responsibility versus blaming God or another person for our supposed misfortunes. This is where the practice of mindfulness, or "uni-tasking" (as opposed to multi-tasking) comes in. So what is uni-tasking? When we are totally aware of only doing one thing at a time and totally concentrating on that, or when we are conscious of only one thought, or when we are mindful of our listening and speaking skills, we are uni-tasking or being mindful! Or, as one of our regular Sunday Mindful Group members says, she always feels that mindfulness is the exact opposite of today's busy multi-tasking world where we are supposed to be able to do many things all at once. Instead, she says she feels that the definition of mindfulness is just doing one thing at a time, or "Uni-tasking."

The Buddha told a wonderful story about mindfulness in which he said that the problem of life or death is in itself the problem of mindfulness. Whether or not one is alive depends on whether one is mindful or not. The Buddha said: "A very famous dancer came to perform in a small village. Many people came to see her perform. At the same time a condemned criminal was obliged to cross the village carrying a bowl of oil filled right to the brim. He had to concentrate with all his might to keep the bowl of oil steady, for if he spilled just one drop the soldier behind him had orders to take out his sword and cut off his head."

The Buddha asked, "Do you think the prisoner was able to keep his attention so focused on the bowl of oil that his mind did not stray to take a glance at the dancer, or to look up at the villagers thronging the village streets in case one might bump into him?"

Unity with self can be achieved by stopping the mind by following the breath. Unity in our experiences can be found when we follow our breath and look deeply into our experiences and see the commonality or universality of that experience. With mindfulness we can find unity in the whole universe. So if in a family or in a group of friends at school or at work, one person practices mindfulness, then the family or the group is reminded to live in mindfulness. So you see, our total responsibility is to live this way and not blame anyone else for our actions, thoughts, feelings, or even our life!