The themes of mindfulness, inspiration, stability, and balance have been part of my everyday life since I was around 30. It's interesting how awareness widens into entirely different realms when mind and soul are balanced by the quiet of just-sitting. By just-sitting I mean Zen meditation, but it can easily be contemplative moments spent at the water-cooler or the solitude of a long walk. Quieting our ever-busy external selves, being able to stop and turn inward, does take practice, but is worth checking out.
“Start by sitting comfortably, cross-legged, and breathing normally,” new Zen students are told. “Then focus on your breath; count each one in your mind.” Thus are they introduced to the concepts of quieting the endless jabber of everyday thought. When we focus on one thing long enough, everything vanishes. We, ourselves, become our own points-of-awareness--and points-of-reference.
The gotcha is that for many of us, finding spare moments can be near-impossible, but if we can manage that, it can and will make a great difference. I remember taking the daily time-outs during a blistering, non-stop ten-and-a-half-week computer architecture class. Stopping to silence the static of insanity over morning coffee. It seemed like an instant within that quarter's madness, but what bliss! ... what a simple and ecstatic joy.
