Subtlety
subtle Adj 1. not immediately obvious 2. delicate or faint 3. Having or requiring the ability to make fine distinctions
- Collins Paperback English Dictionary
- Collins Paperback English Dictionary
Today's life is everything but subtle. All things are in-your-face, and our senses are subjected to a 24/7 barrage assault.
As a result, we've become DEsensitized. And as a result of being desensitized we need our consumption, whether media or fast food, to be more potent, more shocking, sweeter, greasier - otherwise it just won't get through.
Daily meditation is the antidote. Instead of DEsensitizing, it is REsensitizing. After you've been sitting for a few weeks you become aware of things you had forgotten existed. The rub of your shirt against your chest. The loud booming beat of your heart (even when it's going real slowly). The tingle in your throat as the breath goes down.
Meditate for a couple of months and this appreciation of subtlety spreads to other parts of your life. Like taste. Instead of plastering everything with more and more amounts of sugar, you try the plain yoghurt on its own. And, yes, it has it's own special flavour too. Not sweet, but just as interesting. And vegetables: a myriad of subtle tastes await your resensitized buds.
And then you begin finding that you're easlier entertained. You don't need 24/7 surround sound blood and gore to keep you wake. There's millions of other things going on. Things that have always been pretty much drowned out.
The best part about all this is that you don't have to be special to do it. Sit for half an hour a day for 3 months and ANYBODY will start feeling the effects. Cost: Zero. Equipment needed: maybe a cushion. Venue/ Weather needed: anywhere (prison cells included).
OK, so now you're saying but what about the TIME required? It's less than you think. Considering that you can invariably take 3 paces right from where you are and start meditating just about immediately, there is zero preperation/ travel time. Most other things consume half an hour just getting to and back from them. And in any case, when you start right in the beginning you start with 10 minutes, not 30. If you haven't got 10 minutes a day spare then you're really living a screwed up life (in which case you probably need mediation more than ever). After you've done 10 minutes for a week or 2 (shit, start on 5 minutes if you have to) you build up to 12, then 15, then 20. By the time you've got to 30, your daily meditation will be such a valued part of your day that you'll make time, no matter what.
Disclosure: BPG is on the advisory board of Meditation International Inc.
NOT!
As a result, we've become DEsensitized. And as a result of being desensitized we need our consumption, whether media or fast food, to be more potent, more shocking, sweeter, greasier - otherwise it just won't get through.
Daily meditation is the antidote. Instead of DEsensitizing, it is REsensitizing. After you've been sitting for a few weeks you become aware of things you had forgotten existed. The rub of your shirt against your chest. The loud booming beat of your heart (even when it's going real slowly). The tingle in your throat as the breath goes down.
Meditate for a couple of months and this appreciation of subtlety spreads to other parts of your life. Like taste. Instead of plastering everything with more and more amounts of sugar, you try the plain yoghurt on its own. And, yes, it has it's own special flavour too. Not sweet, but just as interesting. And vegetables: a myriad of subtle tastes await your resensitized buds.
And then you begin finding that you're easlier entertained. You don't need 24/7 surround sound blood and gore to keep you wake. There's millions of other things going on. Things that have always been pretty much drowned out.
The best part about all this is that you don't have to be special to do it. Sit for half an hour a day for 3 months and ANYBODY will start feeling the effects. Cost: Zero. Equipment needed: maybe a cushion. Venue/ Weather needed: anywhere (prison cells included).
OK, so now you're saying but what about the TIME required? It's less than you think. Considering that you can invariably take 3 paces right from where you are and start meditating just about immediately, there is zero preperation/ travel time. Most other things consume half an hour just getting to and back from them. And in any case, when you start right in the beginning you start with 10 minutes, not 30. If you haven't got 10 minutes a day spare then you're really living a screwed up life (in which case you probably need mediation more than ever). After you've done 10 minutes for a week or 2 (shit, start on 5 minutes if you have to) you build up to 12, then 15, then 20. By the time you've got to 30, your daily meditation will be such a valued part of your day that you'll make time, no matter what.
Disclosure: BPG is on the advisory board of Meditation International Inc.
NOT!
I feel the same about walking. :)
ReplyDeleteas long as you walk with your feet and not with your head, you can achieve same "nothing special" dealio using "walking meditation" - just have some kind of method to be in your body, rather than in your head.
ReplyDeleteor be in your head, who the hell really cares, after a while, it's all the same anyway, so why not do anything or nothing at all, same, same...