Posted by john on January 03, 2002 at 06:22:01:
In Reply to: Re: machines in my shorts posted by jonvon on January 02, 2002 at 16:17:57:
Maybe try being an animal for awhile. You are part animal. You do have instincts. I like to interact with animals on their level. They really get a kick out of it and it always tends to release something in my mind. Run around outside. Smell the plants up close. Lay in the grass. Close your eyes and let the sun and wind wrap around you. Groom someone... seriously, this is important social behavior and a crucial bonding ritual that we have distanced ourselves from. Comb your wife's hair, or wash it. Or the reverse. Touch, smell, breathe, feel in your skin. These are my favorite meditations.
One day I hope to spend the day running with a pack of dogs. You know those groups of three or four pets that get loose and band together even though they are all different sizes and shapes. They just roam anywhere and look at everything. I want to go with them sometime.
: hm, this is interesting. i was listening to allan watts this morning talking about meditation. he said he was studying with a zen buddhist master. the master taught him a form of meditation that just goes like this: stand with your hands on your hips, with your wrists kind of pointing upward, and laugh like crazy. just laugh laugh laugh. the zen guy said he should do this every morning.
: also watts was talking about letting your mind go a little crazy in some other forms of meditation involving chants. how did he put it... something like, if you let the craziness have its way with you then it is a lot easier to be calm the rest of the day. kind of like rebooting that part of your brain or something. well he put it way more elegantly, i can't remember now. anyway, maybe someone is trying to tell me something... somehow i need to break apart some brittle stuff that has accreted itself all over my mind.
: : the last time i remember jumping off i was standing on the rickety dock at ballast point contemplating my move to boulder. when i said my 'inner yes', my amen, my so mote it be, then all of a sudden a huge blue heron fell awkwardly out of the sky and landed in a pile of hilarity on the planks at my feet. was it a cosmic joke? hmmmmm......won't say, but it was a heck of a great jumping off point. suddenly i realized that sometimes spinning out of control has a certain dignified elegance to it. ....to quote, myself: "whatever THAT means", take it for what it's worth.....ahhhh....something like that.
: : B