swissmiss | Distraction
One of the more embarrassing and self-indulgent challenges of our time is the task of relearning how to concentrate. The past decade has seen an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. To sit still and think, without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine, has become almost impossible.

The need to diet, which we know so well in relation to food, and which runs so contrary to our natural impulses, should be brought to bear on what we now have to relearn in relation to knowledge, people, and ideas. Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.
Alain de Botton on Distraction

Finished reading The Dream of Scipio, by Iain Pears, on Sunday and started One Hundred Days of Solitude yesterday. No. that’s not One Hundred Years of Solitude… this is a book by a woman, who spent 100 days of a snowy New England winter in a tiny cabin in the woods, adherining to a schedule of sitting, walking, chanting, bowing and chopping wood. She had no contact with the outside world. Great example of a distraction-diet, fasting for the mind. Goes well with the Distraction link above..

Water Droplet Bouncing on a Superhydrophobic Carbon Nanotube Array (video)

Uncomfortable looking restaurant, designed by famous movie set designer.

The Desk (video)

Man on a motorcycle in Cuba (photo), riding through a storm. (source)

Autumn poem, found on neobohemia

one word he utters,
one word I respond;
the autumn deepens

Weekly Words of Wisdom:

When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.
– Tibetan Buddhist nun and author Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron

Those words can easily be adapted for musicians or calligraphers.

“Go over and pet the camel, son… It’s an experience you’ll never forget.” (source)

Thinking only goes as far as that which it can understand.
– Lao-tzu

Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt
– Wittgenstein

The Urban Speaker