Sunday in Santa Fe

02010-06-19 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

A few thoughts regarding the vid called The Secret Powers of Time, which I posted the other day.

From an email conversation. You are warned – zen-geeky stuff. Feel free to skip this post.

MZ:
Musing:
Seems that meditation may be shifting us from past/future orientation to present w ability to look from that perspective at past and future w more detachment.

OL:
Yep. That’s what we do in zazen. We constantly pull ourselves back to the present (((every moment a mistake…))) from thoughts that fly away – forward and backward in time. Only once in a while is a thought during sitting concerned with the present, like my leg hurts or it’s hot in here… most thoughts try to escape to the future or past. (((like birds fleeing the nest…)))

MZ:
And in present things are just what they are, not loaded w foreboding or regret. Yet in this moment, by nature, we have an intention for the next moment, but zen (Dogen) teaches it should be only an intention, not attachment to the outcome of that intention, which would produce regret or elation in the next moment–forward or backward concerns, which are not in the moment and which remove us from the balanced position watching/being in time.

Nice.

OL:
Sitting creates an opportunity for the mind to detach from the outcome of any intention (((future))) or regret (((past))). It balances the scales, which contain intention on one side and regret on the other.

MZ:
Seems so. Equanimity w/o distancing from the flow of our lives.

To which I want to add: if anything, one feels more, one has more compassion, while at the same time equanimity develops. Feeling more, but not getting overwhelmed by that… How that can be, I don’t quite know. But, I believe, every meditator would agree with that statement.

This may also be the reason why many artists discover that meditation helps them deal with their sensitivities. It doesn’t dull those sensitivities, like drugs would, but places them into a context in which they can be appreciated, cherished and used in a creative way – rather than crippling the person.

9 Comments

  1. Carol

    Thank you. I wish I could say I’ve been there,I’ve come close I keep trying….trying spoils my attempt I’m afraid.

    Reply
  2. Carol

    I know you are having a happy Father’s Day.

    Reply
  3. ottmar

    Without effort you won’t reach effortless. Trying gives way to doing. Hm, that sounds lame, but how else to say it?

    Reply
  4. Brenda

    To think a thought, we build a effortless thought to think?
    Please think a thought that we accept your effort thoughts, as we do like the sound of your thoughts.

    Reply
  5. LindaW

    ottmar, not lame at all.

    I used to think that I was doing it all wrong but discovered by trying that now I am actually doing.

    Reply
  6. Carol

    Thank you all. I’ll keep striving. To meditate well is a worthwhile goal.

    Reply
  7. ottmar

    marijose: sorry about the delay in publishing your comment – the Journal’s spamfilter apparently didn’t like the link in the comment.

    Reply
  8. marijose

    No problem. Good to have a vigilant spamfilter.

    Reply

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