Plunge Your Whole Life into What You Are Doing
“Just as when you sit in meditation you just sit, when you sleep, be aware of the totality of your whole being going to sleep. When walking, you just walk. When you eat, you are right there just eating. Plunge your whole life into what you are doing at that very moment and live that way. So, we train ourselves to engage our whole being in what we are doing. Whether sitting or eating, you are not engaged in discursive, wandering, or deluded thoughts. All of you…environment, body, and mind…is right there. Whatever you do, whatever the task at hand, your whole life is there at that moment.
Some people may interpret plunging your whole being into the practice or into the task at hand as a very tense approach. This is incorrect. By putting your whole being into what you are doing, you are also being relieved from doing anything else at that moment. Therefore, when you are doing that one thing, that is all you have to care about, and you can do it in a very relaxed manner and attitude. In this light, you will better understand the meaning of engaging your whole being in the present task. This is a relaxed and reposed attitude to practice.”
Excerpted from: “The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination, by Chan Master Sheng Yen
Happy Autumnal Equinox!! First day of fall?! Wow where did the time go?? Well….. it has been a good week. Still recovering from the attempt at the 100 miles with the Run Rabbit Run. It has been nice to just do some easy bicycling each day this past week. The temps are getting cooler in the mornings and you can tell that fall is in the air. Even with the unseasonably hot weather. The air conditioner is not running constantly, trees on the front range are starting to change leaf color, etc.… I am wondering what this winter will bring? Will it be non-existent so to speak with less snow and more rain? Or will it be like the winters of the past? I guess only time will tell.
Looking West towards the Foothills – Spring Creek Trail.
Prairie Dog (Colorado State Rodent) on Spring Creek Trail.
The bike riding in the afternoons has been fantastic. I am very fortunate to live in a city that continues to expand its trail system. If you really wanted to help your citizens with health care, then get them outside and walking, running, biking, skating, etc.… Whatever it might be. The trick is that you need easy and I mean easy access. We are all creatures of habit and we need that easy access to help with the “willpower requirement” of just getting out. We could prevent a lot of our health care cost just with preventive strategies like exercise. It is an old idea but still just as valid since time immortal.
I have been working on another “anatomical heart” picture. They do take time. I figure in this one I already have about 5 to 6 hours of drawing in place. And I am only about a 4th of the way done. This is a smaller one at 7 inches by 10 inches. I will show more of it as the weeks go by. I usually get an hour or two drawing each day. This will be the fourth one I have done of the hearts.
I love the above quote from the book “The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination.” Some days I am much better with this practice than others. Modern media and advertising does not help. Always wanting you to want more. Distracting you from what you are doing. I have found that doing meditation each day helps with this. Focusing me on what I am doing so that I can just be in the moment. Not letting my mind pull me in a thousand different ways. Just taking a deep breath and bringing myself back into the moment.
Monkey Mind – all the things I have to do – over and over and over and – I need this, I need that, I cannot live without this, etc.…
Realizing that it is OK, the “monkey mind” is going to wander… The trick is to realize that you will have to pull it back into alignment… a lot. Over and over until it become second nature. If you are like me, our minds really have the tendency to wonder and this is without the help of modern media. I wonder what it would have been like to live 150 years ago? Before radio, before TV, before cell phones, before the internet. Would it be a good idea to once a year go on a “modern media hiatus”, even if it was only for a week. I think that it would be even hard to do for a day? Or you could spend a significant sum on a Zen retreat where all form of electronic communication is forbidden? I have not tried either yet but maybe that is the next step? Well just some thoughts running around in my “Monkey Brain.”
The reposed and relaxed goal to shoot for. If Home can do it so can you!! Lol
Well on the above note, I am thinking that will be all for me this week. Hope to see you out there on the trails!! Adios amigos!!