By Lakshmi
A couple of days ago, I was at the doctor’s office for a peripheral vision test. I was asked to look at this orange light while several white flashes of light were around it. Every time I saw a flash, I had to press on a clicker. Now, this is much harder than you might think. At the end of it I joked with the doctor that it was more of a mindfulness test rather than a vision test.
So today I wanted to talk about ways in which we could take the mindfulness we have in here into our daily life. This book – Mindfulness on the Go has many techniques. One of them is “Entering new Spaces”. Every time you transition into a new space, go through doorways, you pause take a deep breath and become aware of your surroundings. This could be entering a room, down the stairs, into a car – stop, and see if there is a difference in the new space. Is it cold or are there different smells and sounds.
I think this is a good exercise, particularly because of what I witnessed yesterday. I had gone to the Farmer’s market and I saw a little bit of a crowd around a woman and she appeared to be hurt …quite badly. She was limping, her hand looked injured, hopefully nothing was broken. Someone was escorting her to her car. Giving first aid. I was so petrified – I started walking very slowly. But then I realized, in a few days I would forget and go rushing around as usual.
As the author Jan Chozen Bays says, We move through much of our day, like sleepwalkers, navigating through the world while caught in a dream. This semiconscious state is a source of dissatisfaction (called Dukkha) in Sanskrit, the persistent feeling that something is not right, that there is a gap between us and life as it is actually happening. As we learn to be present bit by bit, the gap closes and life becomes vivid and more satisfying.
And as I learned yesterday – more safe.
Hakone Zendo 