mindfulness

The Opposite of Zen?

Opposite of meditation?
~ davidbiddle ~ Leave a comment

Mindfulness and the sound of writing in your head.

What is it they say about meditation and the search for Enlightenment?

“The Master shall appear when you are ready.”

But what if the Master never shows up? Does that mean you still aren’t ready? That you may never be worthy? Maybe the Master knows you’re operating on a different plane. What if you’re an artist, particularly a poet or someone who writes fiction? Perhaps some of us aren’t meant to be ready.

Yogis and cognitive psychologists tell us that the benefits of meditation and mindfulness come from turning off the verbal mind. Writers, of course, tend to have a hard time quieting their thoughts, even when they aren’t sitting with their keyboard and screen or pencil and paper. I’ve wondered for years, then, whether writing is the opposite of Zen and maybe an impediment to my chance at ever attaining Enlightenment.

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The Voice of the Rising Tide

~ davidbiddle ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been reading bits and pieces of Zen master and poet Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness for the past year. I posted a note on that back in January of 2020 called “The Enlightened and the Lonely.” It was weirdly more prescient than I could have ever known.

Turns out we’re all insane and we’re all locked in the same institution together whether we like it or not. I did not see, however, that there would be a certain group of idiots stuck in this place with the rest of us who are dead set on fucking things up and being assholes. They are not funny, but they are hilarious at the same time. The riddle is how we manage to find a way to feel love for them even though they are such screw ups.

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The Enlightened and the Lonely

~ davidbiddle ~ 2 Comments

Someone could become a millionaire selling a bumper sticker that says:

“If you don’t feel like you’re losing your mind these days, then you’re probably part of the problem.”

Over the past decade things in America just keep getting weirder and nastier. I’d like to blame that on social media and/or our ubiquitous portable communication devices, but I honestly don’t know if I have a leg to stand on with that.

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