I am a firm believer of capturing information. A fancy term for writing stuff down that needs to be examined or acted upon later. If I don’t write it down or type it into my organizer all bets are off when it comes time for recall.
David Allen, a productivity expert, swiped the zen concept of “mind like water” to describe the ability to be present through the use of a productivity system where nothing gets lost. In a (small) nutshell he advises that we write everything down so that our minds are freed up from remembering mundane tasks.
Here is a little mind-hack you can use when you don’t have a notepad, PDA or other device handy.
Many years ago I earned my bread and butter as a hypnotist. Yeah, I know, it is a bit off the beaten career path but it did pay the bills. While learning the trade I was exposed to a lot of interesting ideas. One theory, which holds water, is that people move their eyes in specific directions while recalling information. Part of the theory says that most people will move their eyes upward and opposite of their dominant hand to access a visual memory. So, a right handed person would look up and to the left while remembering something they saw. Looking up and to the right is linked with access a visually constructed memory, an image that the mind has constructed. In my experience the theory works but the direction (left or right) does vary from person to person regardless of their dominant hand. Once the direction is determined it remains consistent for the individual. You can figure out which way you swing through a little experimentation. Try to recall the color of your carpet and pay attention to which direction your eyes move. You will find that this movement is consistent each time you recall visual information that you have actually seen.
Okay Rick, so what? Good question! Say your spouse calls and asks you to pick up a quart of milk on the way home. Yes dear, no problem. But, you have to make several other stops along the way. You have to drop by the dry cleaners and pick up your order and you run into a friend who catches you up on their goiter treatment. You are busy trying to un-see the imagery because, let’s face it, goiters are not the new black. Then you notice that a button has departed from the jacket you were there to retrieve and you have to wait while gets replaced. Your cell rings and your sister informs you that the clown that you hired for your nephew’s party got drunk and arrested for indecent exposure. The party is tomorrow and it would be great if you could bring a piñata. Finally, you collect your jacket, make your way to your car and head for the filling station. You head in to pay for gas and while you are in line you can’t resist the urge to thumb through the new issue of the Weekly World News. Bat boy is on the cover again! You set down the tabloid along with a packet of breath mints and you’re on your way. Finally. You pull into the garage with a nagging feeling that you forgot something. Hmmm, umm..oh yeah, you don’t own a cow. So, off you go again to purchase that quart of milk reminding yourself to enhance your calm as you see a long line at the register. ”If only I had written it down! That’s what those sticky notes are all about.”
So here’s what. You already have a sticky notepad in your mind. Let me show you how to use it. That little experiment with the color of your carpet has provided the location of your mental sticky note pad. For illustrative purposes lets say that you discovered it is up and to the left. To attach a note to it simply picture the article while physically looking up and to the left. You could, for example, look up and to the left and imagine a quart of milk. Or, you could look up and to the left and imagine the words “quart of milk.” What’s happening are two things. One, you are interrupting a normal process by constructing an image with your eyes in the opposite position from how it’s normally done. Secondly, you’ve put that image where it belongs for you to access it visually.
Another experiment before you put it to the ultimate test. Head into your bathroom and snatch up a bottle of shampoo or conditioner. Find the ingredient information and you’ll see some lengthy compounds like polysactpcarbonated acid. Locate the longest, most complex ingredient on the list. Hold the bottle up and to the left or right depending on the results of your previous experiment and follow the bottle with your eyes. Give the words a good look. Set down the bottle and go into another room. Watch tv, read that tabloid you picked up or whatever floats your boat. After a while grab a pencil and paper and write out that impossibly long ingredient. Did you get it right? Odds are that you’ll get it spot on, even if you try it the next day!
The Buddha encouraged us to study our minds, to understand the difference between concept and reality, to see how thoughts and actions are inseparable, to think and to live skillfully. Who knows, he just might have used this little mind-hack himself.
Why Everything is Connected to Everything Else, Explained in 100 Seconds
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/21/brian-cox-everything-
As amazing as this is I am much more flummoxed that there are people who actually understand how this happens. In the example, Cox shows that a bit of friction changes every electron in the universe. Take a breath, every electron in the universe.
Over the years I have been involved with a few Internet projects. The most successful (and the most fun) was The Letter Project. The idea was simple, sign up and receive a handwritten letter. As silly as it sounds the response was overwhelming. Requests came in by the thousands. Some came out of mere curiosity but many of the requests expressed a heartfelt need for contact. There came a time where neither I nor the volunteer writers could keep up with demand and we sadly shuttered the doors. While we made a small dent in fulfilling the number of requests we wish that we could have done more. I hope, that in some small way, we spread a some happiness to others.
The same portion of the mind that seeded the letter project belched up another idea. The Metta Pledge.. The goal of the project is to erect a network or web of loving kindness for all to share. We our participants to take a pledge to include other members in their daily Metta practice. Preliminary response to the idea has been good but we need your help.
Here is what we need:
There a plenty of ways to help change the world for the better but all but the best ones start with a small loving thought. Please visit the site and think it over.
With profound thanks and Metta,
Rick
Behold me, I am the enemy of attention
Sit if you will
Relax
And breathe
Just breathe
Notice my pawing at your face while you sit
And breathe
Let it go
Relax
Be aware
Of your posture
Your thoughts
Your breath
As I test the acoustics of the room
Just sit
And breath
Be aware of the passing
Of your breath, your thoughts, the warmth and wetness
Of the hair ball I yaked up in your lap for ignoring me
Be at peace and breathe
Let it go
Put me down!
Let me go!
Not the door!
Image: dinewithoutwhine.com
Can you imagine taking 20 minutes to eat three raisins? That’s one of the exercises associated with the increasingly popular trend of “mindful eating,” the New York Times reports. Mindful eating is basically meditation with food, and it started, of course, at Buddhist monasteries.
—Via newser
It used to take me hours to eat the liver and onions my mom served though the meal was anything but silent!
Silly as it may seem I think there’s something to be learned here in the context of mindfulness practice.
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.
My teacher is helping me to get a handle on the four foundations of mindfulness. It seems that there are many definitions of what the foundations are but his approach is simplified. Body, Feeling, Mind and Mental Phenomena with the third and fourth foundations overlapping one another.
The satipatthana sutra is much more detailed and perhaps someday I will plumb its depths. For now, it’s all I can do to be mindful of the mind.
Distractions, man oh man do they come. Sitting with the breath, my new best friend, is quite the entertaining experience. Who knew? I mind my own business, breathe in, breathe out. I am fascinated with the breath. Each breath is unique. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Some are short, some long and some are somewhere in between. I never knew how interesting the breath could be. I am peaceful and serene and there’s a chicken. What? How did that get there? Okay. I thought of a chicken. No big deal. Where we’re we? Rising, falling, rising falling, my caboose hurts. Wait, I am not supposed to identify with that. There is no caboose, I am supposed to focus on experience, pressure, heat, etc. not my caboose. It is unpleasant and I want it to stop. I am doing this wrong. Darn! Judgement! Now I’ve really mucked this up. That’s frustrating. Doh! Where did I leave my breath? Okay Rick, just breathe. The caboose is gone. Everything is as it should be. Rising, falling, rising, falling, tacos, ummm tah-cos. Inner bliss spreads as I reach for the hot sauce. Sheesh Rick. ( They don’t call it the monkey mind for nothing) Falling, rising, falling. Don’t open your eyes and peek at the clock. What? I’ve been sitting for twenty five seconds!
The above is a fabrication but still not too far off from the truth. Sometimes it seems like there’s quite an orchestra up there and the conductor is on vacation. Words like this make me feel better:
If you have to let go of distractions and begin again thousands of times, fine. That’s not a roadblock to the practice—that is the practice. That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.~Sharon Salzberg
She also says,
Many distractions will arise—thoughts, images, emotions, aches, pains, plans. Just be with your breath and let them go. You don’t need to chase after them, you don’t need to hang onto them, you don’t need to analyze them. You’re just breathing. Connecting to your breath when thoughts or images arise is like spotting a friend in a crowd: You don’t have to shove everyone else aside or order them to go away; you just direct your attention, your enthusiasm, your interest toward your friend. “Oh,” you think, “there’s my friend in that crowd. Oh, there’s my breath, among those thoughts and feelings and sensations.” If distractions arise that are strong enough to take your attention away from the feeling of the breath—physical sensations, emotions, memories, plans, an incredible fantasy, a pressing list of chores, whatever it might be—or if you find that you’ve dozed off, don’t be concerned. See if you can let go of any distractions and return your attention to the feeling of the breath.
My teacher, a remarkable man who takes time from his busy medical practice to teach vipassana meditation, reminds me, “Remember that the nature of the mind is to think, therefore do not judge yourself or be discouraged but be happy that you recognize thoughts (we usually do not) and not feeding them”.
Sometimes I wish I was a bit quicker to see where the train left the rails.
I’ve been told repeatedly, approach each sitting expecting to receive nothing. Yet I have received. The carryover from sitting helps me to see the world differently even if only for a while and for that I am grateful. I hope that over time this carry over will have a lasting effect.
Ajahn Chah’s explanation of fruitful practice:
Practicing like this, your sati will improve and become more consistent, just like the drops of water falling from a kettle. If we tilt the kettle just a little, the drops fall out slowly… plop!… plop!… plop!…
If we tilt the kettle up a little bit more, the drops become more rapid…
plop, plop, plop!!… If we tilt the kettle up even further the “plops” go away and the water flows into a steady stream. Where do the “plops” go to? They don’t go anywhere, they change into a steady stream of water.
My teacher is fond of saying “be patient and be aware that practice results could be fluctuating rather than linear.”
It comes down to this. Some days it’s okay to plop!
My meditation teacher sent me an introduction to Metta practice and a lovely audio recording of a guided metta meditation. While I am beginning my vipassana practice metta practice is something I have done for a while.
I have found that when I practice metta with a sincere heart things happen. For example, I invite people into my practice by picturing them and saying, “May you be happy. May you be peaceful. May you be safe. May you be well”. More often than not, within the next day or so I will get a phone call from that person who is just calling to check in. I also find that if I practice while standing in line at the bank or market the targets of my practice (neutral people) make an effort to get closer to me or smile. Call it coincidence if you like; I choose to call it cause and effect.
Having witnessed this phenomena over and over again I have come to view metta practice as a responsibility. I see it this way: metta in an inexhaustible form of energy, The more we practice, the more we add to it. Sending metta to one does not diminish the energy to another. It just strengthens it more.
If I gain nothing more from meditation practice than recognizing the above I’ve gained something of incalculable value.
Have you practiced metta today?
