Live Like A Tree Walking: Non Directed Meditation
Posted by VIJun 15
I posted a link on Tumblr, in which it seems neuro-scientists are finding non-directed meditation may be more effective than that which focusses on a single thought or concept or image.
The wonderful thing about that kind of meditation is that once you make time for it, there is no need to do anything, any more than there is anything to do while watching a river flow and hearing the birds chirp and then the noise of the water suddenly fades as the breeze stirs trees.
The river still continues. It does not crave your attention or your inattention. You willl notice it or you will not. To quote Austin Osman Spare \”Does not matter, need not be.\”
Similarly – stealing from teratocybernetics – you may begin to understand that though your mind may be a bag of cats, tussling and growling and hissing and clawing for dominance, you are only seeing part of the cats. In all their chaos, can you honestly say that you are seeing any more than flashes of teeth and claws and tails?
There are many whole, complete cats in that bag, and yet it is downright impossible for us to see them in all their furry feline glory. While our attention is on one, the others still proceeed to what they do. So why worry? After all, if we just allow ourselves to know there are many things happening all at once which we cannot control, let alone perceive.
And while we are busy with the cats in the bag, what is our body doing? The rising and falling of our bellies and chests occurs with or without us. The digestion of our food, the billions of bacteria busily beavering away in our guts, the feel of fabric on skin.
All these things occur without \’our\’ notice. And yet they are more intimate than any other personal relationship. The wonderful thing about this kind of meditation is the realisation that Being and Doing are entirely different.
We are taught by our culture to be, to have an effect, we must do. But look at the rest of the natural world, which we are undoubtedly part of, despite centuries of denial, and you will find that Doing proceeds from Being, and not the other way around.
This kind of meditation is giving you a chance to re-experience Being without the false necessity of Doing.
As Spare also said \”Live like a tree walking.\”
Soon enough, and with remarkable ease, you\’ll begin to learn how Doing happens without even trying, because you are allowing yourself Being, without restraint.
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