Prayer is routine for Merton but as subject matter for today's post, elusive for me. Instead we'll explore attention. Recently it occurred to me that paying attention to the feeling of breath in my body during meditation was becoming a little easier.
Dressing for Ai Chi water class last week was therefore quite humbling. When I pulled my new black maillot swimsuit on I wondered why there was so much floppy fabric on my abdomen. What a shock to realize that I was putting it on backwards!
According to the Merton Master of Attention book, the purpose of attention is to see better. Seeing beauty, especially wabi sabi, is important to me. Attention makes lots of things possible.
You can bet I'm now paying more attention in the locker room. What do you want or need to pay more attention to or see more of? What do you want to see better? Any thoughts on routine prayer?
Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall
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To answer the question of what am I hoping to pay attention to more, I would answer my relationships, which work hand in hand with being more present in the moment. Months ago I came to the realization that I wasso busy planning life and the next steps that I'm forgetting to live and experience the now of life. I'm trying to pay attention more and actively listening, instead of just hearing and passively responding with "yeah, ok" or "mmhmm" I think in an age that so greatly values multi-tasking, it's hard to disengage your planning mind and just be. On the flip side, if you never plan, you'll end up in the dark without any water to shower because you failed to pay your water/power bills :) Oh the balance!
ReplyDeleteWhat wisdom you give to us. I love how you give an example of how we don't do active listening. "mmhmm" is really passive responding as you noted. Congratulations for figuring out how important relationships are and taking action. This inspires me to pay attention to when I want to passively respond and see if I can be more present to the other.
DeleteI hope you let us know how your balancing planning vs. living goes. It is a challenge for all of us.