pretty mountains, ugly parking lots

This quote was in an email I received today: “When you go to nature
or go on retreats, the environment is so
beautiful and quiet and sacred. When
you go to the city and you
completely let go of any resistance to it, you’ll
start to sense the
same sacredness, the same timelessness, that you find in the
beauty of
nature.” ~ Adyashanti

It was exactly the subject I was discussing with a couple friends the other day - how appealing and right it seems to go looking for spiritual experiences and insights in beautiful places and in the tranquility of retreats, but how it can't be that all of that is not also in everything urban or ugly, noisy, stinky, crowded, etc. It's sort of a natural inclination, isn't it? The ocean view and the freeway traffic jam don't seem very equivalent.

Though I also think biologically we take comfort in certain kinds of environments. But in terms of this journey that this forum is about, that is beside the point. So why doesn't anyone hold retreats in a noisy, hot, insect ridden corner office overlooking a major intersection? Maybe no one would pay for that. I probably wouldn't.

I did meditate through a month of the neighbor's renovations last year. I figured it was character-building if nothing else. With practice it was fairly easy to let the drilling and hammering be no more important than other things. Some days it made me nuts, but mostly not, once I got used to it.

Thoughts? Experiences?

I did meditate through a month of the neighbor's renovations last year. I figured it was character-building if nothing else. With practice it was fairly easy to let the drilling and hammering be no more important than other things. Some days it made me nuts, but mostly not, once I got used to it.
Thoughts? Experiences?

-ona

Most of my daily meditation sessions occur in one of the many conference rooms on my floor. I find an empty one, flip on the light, shut the door, and sit upright in a chair. People walk by, talk in the hall, and occasionally walk-in on my practice. (People get pretty startled. It's kind of funny.) Phones ring, heat or A/C vents crank on and off, etc., etc.

Sometimes my body hardly reacts to the sudden arising of phenomena. Sometimes my body reacts quite energetically. The innate startle response is not often over-ridden, even when strong equanimity of mind is cultivated. It isn't a problem, though. It's actually quite fascinating.

If I didn't learn to meditate in this environment, I would never have time for practice. There have been many significant milestones in my development as a yogi that have happened while sitting in an office chair, eyes closed, fluorescent lights a-blazin'.

Funny about the startle response, yes. I think there was a weird point, if I recall, where I tended to feel sounds in my body? And then I would startle extra hard. It is pretty funny. At another time when I had to travel back and forth weekly I used to meditate on the commuter train, but that didn't always work if I was having energy stuff going on - I was afraid people might think I needed a doctor. Depended on the day whether I could manage to meditate surreptitiously or not. It is a great way to kill tedious time on long overnight flights, however.

In a meditation that focuses on continuity and momentum of open awareness I'm beginning to think one location or activity is no different from another.

In this sort of meditation it's only the quality of the looking that matters, right?

Maybe there will always be insights and some sorts of fruitions no matter what one is doing or where one is at, as long as the continuity of awareness is held for the right amount of time, however, the types, flavor, and quality of those insights are just different?


If I sit at home in my room on a Saturday when there is no spouse around, no kids around, and the dogs are quiet, I can get a very detailed continuous awareness of the rising and falling of my abdomen, or the feeling of the breath on my nostrils and I can see all the accompanying images my mind instantly creates to match each sensation. I can see that, I can see the development of craving, and the beginnings of suffering. That kind of thing. And more, of course.

If I'm on my commuter van, with the vibrations of the road, the sound of the engine and the other cars, the tinny noise from the other commuters' headphones, etc., I can stick with some more gross and large instant by instant sensations, images, thoughts, have fruitions, and often get insights into things, sometimes not. If the quality of the looking is just right I see my face looking back at myself.

If I get up from my desk, walk to the elevator, greet a boss or a coworker, push the "down" button, have the sensations of other people coming in and out of the elevator car (this varies depending on who the person is, my mood, their mood, etc), walk out onto the streets of San Francisco to go to the bank, to lunch and back, etc. and then reverse it all back to this desk, -- and all the while keep a loose, open, bare awareness of my thoughts, feelings -- then a whole other kind of insight can arise, often having to do with work and effort, and ambition, on feelings of worth or lack of same, on stories that I create and weave about who I am and about who you are and, if I'm lucky, or touched by the grace you can get from practice sometimes -- everything can seem .... not PERFECT, exactly, it can all seem so empty of content that the question of perfection or imperfection is totally moot.

What I'm saying doesn't apply to concentration types of meditation, right? Samatha, etc. Jhanas. Those techniques seem to require silence and a calm room/location.

hi! much of my practice takes place in circumstances I intuitively find "distracting", which has been helpful, in terms of seeing the absurdity in being 'distracted' (by what? who is distracted? what is 'splitting' experience into what I'm paying attention to and the 'distraction'?).

Being climbed on by a two year old, while people are watching TV or listening to loud music, being climbed on by two two year olds when Ivan's buddy Lucian comes over, walking the dog (he's a bit unruly although good natured) and so on and so forth. Now that Ivan's a bit older I have windows in which I can sit quietly and alone, which is great too.

But mostly I like having a more streamlined, non-reactive experience of active daily life, and like what you wrote about maintaining openness and continuity throughout varied circumstances Mike.

I don't really have the opportunity to meditate anywhere in my place of work. But I can say that there has been the strong odor of rotting food coming from something, god knows what, in the close vicinity of my desk for three or so days. So I have had an object lesson in aversion.

I don't really have the opportunity to meditate anywhere in my place of work. But I can say that there has been the strong odor of rotting food coming from something, god knows what, in the close vicinity of my desk for three or so days. So I have had an object lesson in aversion.

-cruxdestruct

Could you be in the "dukka nanas?" --

8. Knowledge of Disgust

Seeing thus the misery in conditioned things (formations), his mind finds no delight in those miserable things but is entirely disgusted with them. At times, his mind becomes, as it were, discontented and listless. Even so he does not give up the practice of insight, but spends his time continuously engaging in it. He therefore should know that this state of mind is not dissatisfaction with meditation, but is precisely the "knowledge of disgust" that has the aspect of being disgusted with the formations. Even if he directs his thought to the happiest sort of life and existence, or to the most pleasant and desirable objects, his mind will not take delight in them, will find no satisfaction in them. On the contrary, his mind will incline and lean and tend only towards Nibbana. Therefore the following thought will arise in him between moments of noticing: "The ceasing of all formations that are dissolving from moment to moment — that alone is happiness."

Therefore the following thought will arise in him between moments of noticing: "Where the fuck is that smell coming from?"