I was recently riding my snowboard on a snowy day. My goggles were probably 14 years old, from my first season of riding. They are old, scratched and don’t fit particularly well, so they squish my nose making it hard to breathe. I was riding blind and couldn’t breathe out of my nose! It was a long day.
I finally upgraded my goggles and helmet (also 14 years old!) and the next day out was a revelation. I could SEE and BREATHE!!!! The day went by in a flash.
The other day, I donned for the very first time prescription glasses. I thought I only needed reading glasses but, alas, the world at a distance had become a little blurry; I’d just accommodated to it and didn’t notice. But sure enough leading the meditation, the clock was a little fuzzy without the glasses, crystal clear with. So to for the painting and the people. I don’t feel like celebrating this one as I did with the goggles, but it lends itself as a metaphor.
We can grow accustomed to anything — even the world being turned upside down. There’s a classic psychology experiment where the subjects wear special goggles that turn their image of the world upside down (by actually righting the image that hits the retina). It takes a while for them to stop stumbling and jerking for objects, but eventually they do. The upside down world is now right side up. Once the experiment is over they have to go through the process of adaptation all over again!
Remember, from the other day, the nine places attention can go?
In any given moment our attention can be in any one of ten places. Nine of them of can be visualized on a grid, like a tic-tac-toe board. There are three locations attention can be — future, past, and present (but here it is commentary about the present; that is, opinions, about what is happening now). And then there are three flavors for each of the locations — pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral.Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/mindfulnessmatters/2011/02/it.html#comments#ixzz1Dml7BCVQ
The stories that arise in these place obscure our clear vision of the world. Mindfulness is like correcting our vision so that we can see the world clearly. When we don’t pay attention to the world with exquisite care we may not notice that our images have become fuzzy, even blurry. Our preoccupation with stories, especially those in the future-unpleasant and past-unpleasant sectors of the grid impair our ability to see (and appreciate) what is here in our world right now.
So stop telling those stories and look at the world. You might enjoy the vividness, the brightness, and the clarity of your mind.
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