“Mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit. Both of them help us to touch the ultimate dimension of reality…

…when the energy of the Holy Spirit is in us, we are truly alive, capable of understanding the suffering of others and motivated by the desire to help transform the situation.” Thich Nhat Hanh

In Buddhism, the effort is to practice mindfulness in each moment and to know what is going on within and all around us. I think this explains Jesus’ ability to be tuned into what God was doing. He seemed to have an awareness of the emotional state of those around him and had obviously developed an incredible level of compassion. Buddhists define enlightenment as reaching a state of “no-self” where you are focused completely on understanding and having compassionate feelings for the whole world. Paul described the Christian “conversion” process as dying to self and Jesus described it as beng reborn. In either case it was a metaphor for changing our character to be more compassionate and less self-interested.