Week 20 Day 1

Week 20 Day 1

Medi object choiceless
Intention to practise in a strange place...

Morning all! Today I managed 20 mins in a meeting room. May do some mindful putting (!) this afternoon.

The clock in the room was mesmeric! The tick was so loud. I started observing the rising and falling of the breathing, one of my nostrils is a bit blocked due to hay fever season. I only noticed this a few minutes in. It appears that the calmer the mind and the more focused, one notices more as one goes along.

The tick of the clock was fuzzy, i.e. although the tick was at a particular time, there was an echo that seemed to make it longer than a split second. I could hear the ringing in my ears as a continuous noise with oscillations. I could feel my hands on my thighs and also around my body was a coolness which was slightly unpleasant. I shivered under my armpits(!) first on the left and then on the right.

I noticed in this session that my alertness wavered and interestingly it was as though when my attention was brought back to the area in the front of the mind I felt more aware, and when my attention waned it moved dropped and moved away from that area. I found the clock very hypnotic and now I know why people use a ticking clock to try and sleep!

My colleagues have gone to watch the Grand Prix highlights! I'm going to go and do some more meditation! Be backson...

Ok! Back with another journal of meditation! I did a full 30 minutes because I thought my colleagues would be away for at least an hour and when I got back to my desk they were already back looking a bit forlorn because the highlights were only 20 minutes!

So now to another meditation. I chose a different location to avoid the very noisy ticking clocks in meeting rooms. The sun was shining outside, blue sky, green trees and concrete buildings made for very pleasant vedana! As I started I observed my breathing and the ringing in my ears, I noticed the sounds of various bits of office equipment on standby. I felt my hands on my thighs. For a while I watched the floaters in the vitreous humour in my eyes, at first they were extremely clear, they looked like bits under a microscope, and when I moved my eyes they moved. Interestingly later, as I started to see colours, the floaters became blurry and moved into the background.

No shivers this time, the temperature was pleasant. I felt happy to focus on the practice without worrying about going back to my desk (little did I know...). I realise that as one sits in one position for longer duration, different things happens. More light shows, an itch or two (one I had to deal with near my eye, one I let be). Alertness is challenged and I can feel the alertness drift to the back and then to the front of my mind.

Anyway, nearly checkpoint time, so I'll sign off, I'd rather be out on the golf course than in here but not long to go now! Have a great day and practice!

And it's week 20!