Day 3
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No headersDay 3
March 24, 2013
Today will be our last day with this idea. Tomorrow, we'll shift to a new sense.
PLEASURE READING
Please take 15 minutes, no more and no less. Find a comfortable spot, indoors or outdoors.
Set aside all questions, concerns and plans, and choose reading that you can spend time with, rather than trying to learn from necessarily.
This practice bears some relation to "lectio divina", which a way of imbibing a text and just enjoying a relationship with the work rather than trying to gain something (predictable) from it. The reading does not need to be something (you or) others would find impressive, just something you are drawn to. It also does not have to be a book or article of words. Perhaps it is an art book, or cook book.
Before you begin, set a timer, then take 3 slow, deep breaths to settle in. Drop preoccupations and agendas for just this little while.
After the 15 minutes, please take 3 slow, deep breaths and reflect on the time. How did creating a beginning and ending boundary feel? Could you taste the stop? Were you able to set aside everything except for the reading? It isn't important to come to sure answers or comment in this way - the main thing is just to consider.
:) Possibly helpful timing tool: http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/bell/index.html
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'but once I streaked the paper gray
with a hint of green,
water began to slide down the page,
rivulets looking for a river.
And again, I was too late—
then the sky made another turn,
this time as if to face a mirror
held in the outstretched arm of a god.'
Collins, Billy (2012-07-12). Horoscopes for the Dead
Makes me think too much about watercolour techniques like 'wet in wet' where you wet the paper first before adding paint and get all sorts of random effects. The random uncontrolled parts of life too I guess. Thinking a lot lately about how people try to control their lives and get annoyed when their strategies don't work.
It didn't occur to me that anyone would find it difficult to sit and read something for 15 minutes since I spend hours most days studying and reading. I would find it more difficult to not do that. I have to force myself to 'waste' time watching a movie. edited 14:20, 24 Mar 2013
Thank you for these musings about watercolors, Zen. Yesterday at an exhibit I stood in front of a "plum tree" work by a Zen master from another time that struck as surprisingly modern. The wetness of the brushwork caused a splattering effect that in less attentive hands might have been just a jumble.
The Wikipedia Front page for today.
It's interesting to see the subtle ways I am usually not totally concentrating on reading. One of the is the tendency to eat during reading, which can't be good for either reading or eating. Another is the tendency to want to finish a book, which distracts from being with the book right now.
"There is only one name that is not given by man and that is Omkar, and Omkar means the sound of Om."
Getting sleepy - but a nice way to be sleepy and pondering Om as I go relax.