The Buddha taught us to take a close look at our minds.  
“The mind,” he said, “is the true agent of all our deeds.”  

When we take a close look we see that the desire for happiness is deeply rooted in the mind.  We do not want to suffer.  

But the funny thing is — this universal desire for happiness expresses itself through ignorance as greed and craving, and our aversion to the notion of suffering gives rise to hatred and anger, and the only thing we achieve is suffering!  

How perverse is that?
So, when the Buddha instructed us to be mindful, he was offering us the opportunity to reverse this negative trend and move toward the liberating light of insight ...