Failing to meditate early in the day means I will get lost in the day. By meditation I mean an act that focuses my being not just sitting around in the lotus position internally uttering the unspeakable syllable. Perhaps the better term in lieu of mediation is clearing my mind and contemplating something beyond the mundane minutiae of daily living. When I say lost in the day I mean my focus is drawn in a 100 directions and I don’t seem to accomplish anything. My prioritizations schemes all fail.
For me the act of centering my mind is as natural and necessary as taking a shower to cleanse my body. If I don’t take my shower say because I know I have heavy work to do that will require sweat and or exposure to gunky things (image cleaning a wet basement), my day is thrown off also. Showering just gets me to the starting point of the day. Maybe what I am saying is I like to start the day clean mentally and physically, a tabla rasa as it were.
Meditation can be as simple as walking about and just forcing myself to be in the moment. Look there is a tree. Smell the bakery. See the light glinting oddly off the windows up there. Other times it is reading a religious passage and someone’s commentary on it. Trust me I oft times find the commentary has missed the point or is agenda driven. Still the act of reading a verse and thinking about how it fits into my life in the world I occupy is refreshing and invigorating.
Today’s mediation, “ I must refuse all affirmations of what I do not fully and actually know, experience and believe myself.” It is from Merton of course. It argues for a simplified relationship between oneself and the world. Sounds like a good thing. Whether life in an organized society is possible utilizing this maxim is possible, I do not know.
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