I sat the graveyard shift at the meditation marathon. The 3 am drunkards definitely served as mara-demon quality distractions. Reminded me of Milarepa meditating in his cave:
I often think of dharma in the old Hindu sense of my personal path. A kind of destiny. The feeling that there is in fact the right place to be, the right thing to say, the right effort and focus to maintain in every moment. In this way, it’s all about working with distractions. Especially in our distraction-saturated culture. I found working with the distractions outside the window a fruitful practice.
Otherwise, I had a rather peaceful sit. Broadway was pretty quiet from about 4 am to 6 am. And there was no disco music on! Moreover, it was a joy to feel the sun coming up over the buildings, to watch the light bounce off the streets. That was a distraction I didn’t mind spending a moment with.
For the record, I found the meditation marathon a wonderful way not only to practice, but also to raise awareness for awareness itself. I felt the energy outside the window; I appreciated the exchange we were having with the public. I vote yes to more marathons in the future!
posted November 10, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Hi, Paul – thanks for sharing your comments about meditating during the midnight shift. It was great being next to you those four hours, and I didn’t even hear you snore
. I really get what you’re saying about the awareness piece. The main benefit that I derived from those four hours, as I listened to trucks, taxis, street cleaners, garbage trucks and construction, was to accept the noise and relax into the sounds. I noticed that even though there were very few people in the streets, that rarely, if ever, were there more than 15 seconds of total silence. I noticed that when the environment shifted from silence to noise, my body reacted with tension and irritation – once I figured out what was going on, I shifted my practice to noticing and accepting the sounds as they came into my awareness – appreciating the silent moments and noticing and embracing the noisy ones. The result was profound peace. My body stopped fighting the environment and it turned into a very peaceful, deep meditation. I think that practice helped later when it came time to meditate in the windows with the loud store music – particularly when it was Madonna singing. I too vote YES to more public meditations! I loved it. I kind of think it’s the most powerful activism I’ve ever participated in.