Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. – Hans Margolius
For the past week, I’ve taken 10 minutes or so to sit quietly in a rocking chair after waking up, doing a type of eyes-open meditation that I recently read about. I’m a morning person — my mind is zooming about tons of stuff as soon as I wake up — so this is proving to be a very difficult thing to do.
I just try to quiet my mind, focus on a point on the wall, and deliberately slow down my breathing. I can’t seem to get past 20 seconds without some thought intruding. When I realize that I’ve been off into the future (“I gotta remember to add that to my to-do list…”) or back into the past (“What the hell’s wrong with that guy anyway?”) I’m supposed to say to myself, “Oh wait. That isn’t important. I just want to sit here with a quiet and empty mind.”
I don’t know if and when I’ll begin to really experience the benefits from doing this. It helps to know that practicing quieting my noisy brain could eventually help my racquetball game. But I’m assuming there’ll be other benefits, too. More on that later.
Today, I added one element to my ten minutes. I read the “Make Me An Instrument of Your Peace” prayer of St. Francis. I’m not sure why, or if I’ll continue. But I figure a little more ritual can’t hurt.