Would love you to expand on this!
The path begins with mindfulness and love.
you cannot focus your attention, when you walk, on something that happened in the past and also focus on the sensation of the feet when it touch the ground (mindfulness of the body). its one or the other. theres 6 movement alone just when you make a step. you can focus your attention solely, at all time, on what your body do rather then think for example. this brings a lot of calm.
either your focused on the present moment, which is only possible with mindfulness, or you think about a phenomena that isnt real anymore.
when you think, you think always about the world, about something that happened in the past or that will happen in the future. you are not now when you think. the only way to be now when you think is to observe your thoughts (mindfulness of the thoughts).
When you realize that you can create happiness into your heart and mind by thinking wholesome thoughts, it becomes quite evident for your mind that every time you think negatively or entertain unwholesome thoughts, stresses arise and that it creates suffering for you.
you then learn also that any thought, if you observe it, rather then continue, dissolves. no thoughts has a life of its own. we give the life to the thoguhts we have and we create them basically.
this is called mindfulness of the thoughts. then, you change your attention on mindfulness of the body, as no matter how beautiful and wholseome the thought is, its better and less stressful for your mind to focus your attention on the body as the sensation in your body is even more closer to reality then your thoughts.
so now, it would be very foolish for me to entertain thought of hate, because I now know that my thoughts affect me and my happiness and that I can change that negativity by simply observing my thoughts and asking to my mind, gently, where are you. are you now or you think, judge, critic, ressents, something that happened in the past or will happen later? once you realize that all the stress is created because your not focused on the now, you give up that weird tendency, that need.
so im now in a mood where I have basically only thoughts which are positive. I do not believe in the negativity in persons and I stil love someone no matter how bad his intention or actions are. I know his struggle, I know how life is hard and I know that it serves no purpose to judge and hate him. I actually have a hard time seeing anything really negative in someone. I dont believe in me as a person, why should I believe in others?
also, I have had many insight about annata, no self. we are a stream, not a fix phenomena. we only exist in the now. every past action does not define who we are now. You are now and what you do now. so if you love and entertain loving thoughts, you are, now, a loving person and you can be sure that happiness will follow. so, whats the point to judge a action someone did in the past. it doesnt define him. so yeah, any thoughts is pure fantasy, a alternate reality we create in our mind that makes us unhappy.
I could go on and on, but you need to do it yourself then all this will be very evident for yourself!
I recommend ayya khema talks as she is a supposed arahant. she explains the method Ive describe in a much more interesting way. As I said, its been maybe 6 month that Ive really began my practice but it changed my life in a ridiculous way. very very promising.
what I do realize though, is that I was very NOT in the path before, while others are in the path without knowing it for a long long time.
maybe this gives me the advantage to know how much one can change as some people seems to be in the state of mind I am all their life.
so now, when you walk, you know every step, you know your hand when it reaches to grab the door, ou know every step you take to go to the door ect. this is mindfulness of the body. when you eat, you take the spoon, put in it your month, you chew, you taste, you swallow. ect. what do we do normally? we think about a million think while doing those movement, we eat and we think rather then be mindful.
''If with a impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him'' Buddha