mindfullness, or the lack thereof

From a Facebook thread about a post by Brad Warner at his blog, Hardcore Zen, on the topic of "mindfullness" and hero-worship in Zen, comes this great comment from Mike Dolan Fliss:

Once, at sesshin [Zen meditation retreat] up north, the teacher's main student dropped his fork at dinner. I found myself wondering about how present he was. Then I wondered about how present *I* was, and reminded myself about the importance of my OWN practice, noticing my judgement. Then, in the midst of all this reminding myself about the importance of my own practice, I dropped my own fork.

The phenomenon is probably familiar to students of many practices. For example many times I've seen a senior karate teacher make a small fumble while doing their kata, wonder about their lack of concentration, and then trip over my own two feet because I was busy worrying about what they were doing.