Originally posted by kirksey957
Could you say a little about how you learned this and how "continual vigilence" works for you?
Could you say a little about how you learned this and how "continual vigilence" works for you?
Have thought about this honest question a bit. How I “learned” it may not be relevant, since we are all different, our journeys and predilections and compulsions different. Meditation helps: there are lots of techniques out there; I like the simpler ones. My first experience of clear-mind (which is not blank mind!) was on an 8-day “intensive” centering prayer retreat, done mostly in silence. Although having a Christian (specifically Catholic/Trappist) framework, centering prayer is really very like Soto Zen sitting meditation, and can be done, as I did it, in a very nonreligious way. You might start by reading
Centering Prayer by Basil Pennington.
Because I tend to have a compulsively busy (wordy) mind, koan work has been and is helpful for me. My struggle is always between clarity and compulsive “thoughty-ness.” Using a koan, or a phrase from one, helps to
re-mind me toward clarity. The more one practices (or attends), the less one strays, the easier to remind oneself.
Clear-mind (clarity) is just being-aware without preconceptions, and focusing awareness as you choose (attending). If you want to think, you think and are aware of your thinking, and what you are thinking about.
I’m not trying to make any of this sound too easy. It isn’t. It takes (a) willingness to do it, (b) technique(s) that work for you, and (c) practice and continual attending. But that is all it takes. And maybe some fortuitous “accidents” along the way...
_________________________________
BETWEEN
My story’s telling does not matter—
it is only mine and the only
time will not tick for it again—
better that I remain between,
in between the hands the words,
and only wave, inarticulate:
“That way, that way too will take you
here,” to where I live, between—
Once I thought I was quickly dying
(“these hands will in a moment
never tick for it again—I feel the crash
and then the pendulum, unmoving...” )
—and so I caught to mind and held,
in between the pain and fear,
a simple, sole imagining
of something beautiful
and rare.
—vistesd