It's Spatial Stupid

Yesterday on the radio I heard a blind scientist talking about a new system of maps that he's created based on braile. Streets on the maps are raised and use notations to indicate names and directions, etc.

What a simple idea but not successfully used before. The scientist said, "People think of maps as visual but they are not, they are spatial", and blind people also have spatial relationships to the physical world.

What a great example of how what we already know often gets in the way of other knowing - or more often, of relating to others and how they might know the same thing differently, thus enriching our own knowing.

See or go blind

The swifts cry
As they shoot by, See or go blind!

- Gary Snyder, "Hunting", in "Myths and Texts"

Awareness is possible in every present moment. To be unaware is to be blind - but a blindness that is curable, only in the present; this present.

Verse second

The tilt of our earth is no mistake

we are what we are in full due cause.

Her seasons are grace, her nights awake

nocturnes within, without and away.

Working outside today

Bobbi and I worked outside the house today. I raked leaves and cut the grass. But this year was different. This year I planned to put the leaves in my new compost bin and I was using my new push-mower.

Because of this I do think I felt different about the work. I felt that the work was part of the cycle of earth and the season. Returning dead leaves to become humus. Using my own power and not that of a gas engine to trim the grass and leaving the clippings on the yard to decompose. This is a way of being in harmony with the way things are.

Power is not a human trait that takes us anywhere near happiness; mindfulness of the way and discipline to be in harmony are. Good times.

Riding as fast as I am riding.

Riding my bike on Saturday I practiced my koan.

I was grateful for going as fast as I was going. For being able to ride - healthy enough, strong enough.

I then became grateful for not going any faster and for not going any slower. The former was more difficult than the later as I almost always want to be riding faster.

The practice allowed me to shift into awareness of the present and to be happy with it, with riding just as fast as I was riding. It was a moment of true presence, unencumbered with expectations, lacking grasping for things to be other than they were. Nirvana on two wheels. Really.

The Moments of the Day

Which moments of the day do you enjoy the most as they take place? Laughing, accomplishing, talking with friends, being reminded of those now passed whom we loved dearly? These are some of mine.

Which moments of the day do you look back at with pride? Rising to the challenge, non-attachment to the rising negative emotions, realizations of wisdom? These are some of mine.

What if the two merged closer and closer together - enjoyment in the moment and relishment of the memory? Being present, without attachment, growing wise. It's easier than you think. Just merge the two. They are only different in our mind, in our emotions, not in reality.

Dog days and baseball.

I'm sitting on the back porch listening to baseball on the radio. Tigers and Indians in extra innings. This is one reason why I love the summer.

The "dog days" of summer began today by the appearance at sunrise of Sirius, the Dog Star. Enjoy.

Free Enjoyment

How do people enjoy themselves with others?

Talking about what they have in common brings a level of enjoyment. Listening to another person talk about something or someone they love in their life can bring a higher level of enjoyment.

Neither is better but we're more practiced at the first and less at the second - missing out on free enjoyment. I'm working on cashing in on this coupon.

Listening

Would not the world be more beautiful and peaceful if we did not have a response every time someone told us something?

Discipline and Inspiration

My best friend and I were talking about writing for my blog. I was dismayed that I was not writing every day. She thought that unrealistic, observing that inspiration may not come every day. My response is that discipline unveils inspiration.

What discipline? The discipline to be present to what's going on. The discipline to not get caught up in judgment and whining. The discipline to drop limiting concepts.

Inspiration is hidden, not hiding, always. Breathing calls her out. Hello.

Fascinated by sadness

I am both captured by and fascinated with sadness of late. I can't escape it and instead of moping around in it, as had been my habit, I've been expressing it. In the expression there is unveiled a depth to the sadness inside of which I often appreciate what I find - not only real reasons for being sad but also other emotions mixed in, mostly appreciative ones: affection, longing, even joy.

An obsolete use of the word fascinated is "bewitched" - for me the being caught in moping. The current use can included "enthralled." Isn't it interesting for one to be enthralled by sadness. I love these seemingly contradictory meanings. They are great for haiku. They are true for life.

Most important reminder

Breathe. Breathe again.

Riding the Bus

I rode the bus yesterday. It was a route I had not taken before. I like the selflessness that is available in riding public transport - being anonymous as one of many such others and being present to the experience. I find the "suchness" of experience that Buddhists talk about. At the same time I see the suffering of others that seems obvious: mothers yelling at children, swearing at them, belittling teenage daughters - "If you wouldn't have opened your god damned legs you wouldn't have this baby would you?"

How to be present to this suffering without judgement? As Jack from our Southcoast Zen Meditation Group says, simply being in the conscious state of awareness is the best gift to those around you who may not be in that state.