Category Archives: Mindfulness

PROMPT: Comfort

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What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?

I don’t, but I have a lot of strategies for being more content in the face of various situations and environments — including uncomfortable ones. These include the yogic practice of dispassionate witnessing, minimalism, travel (and specifically minimalist travel to places – the less familiar the better,) and intense physical activity.

I think comfort as a major objective in life is overrated, and virtually insures a discontented life. A life in which one can be content, whatever may come along, is a happy life.

Feel the Breeze [Free Verse]

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Feel the breeze upon your face.
 Let it be all you know.

Don't ponder atmospheric lows.
 Just feel the breeze upon your face,
         and know:

There is a breeze.
         (Though it may not be
           what you think it is.)
 You have a face.
         (Though it may not be
           what you think it is.)

Startle Response [Haiku]

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even in death
 the scorpion can evoke
  momentary fear.

BOOK REVIEW: Mindfulness in Wild Swimming by Tessa Wardley

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Mindfulness in Wild Swimming: Meditations on Nature & Flow (Mindfulness series)Mindfulness in Wild Swimming: Meditations on Nature & Flow by Tessa Wardley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: June 13, 2023

As the title suggests, this is a book about combining mindfulness and swimming in natural bodies of water. It’s part of a large series of “Mindfulness and …” books, and this particular volume is a re-release of a title that came out a couple years back.

While the book does provide an overview the basic methods and considerations for both mindfulness meditation and wild swimming, it’s largely a peptalk or enticement to take up wild swimming as a means to improve awareness (as well as to bolster physical health and mental well-being.) That said, some of this peptalk is artfully, almost poetically, written, and the book is a pleasure to read.

The book discusses solo swims versus those in a group, and it even explores using onshore experiences to bolster mindfulness — e.g. using the sensory experience of the water as a focal point for practicing awareness. The around- (v. in-) water discussions are probably in part because the book uses seasons as a secondary mode of organization, and long and leisurely winter swims in lakes and rivers aren’t an option for people in many parts of the world.

I picked up some interesting food-for-thought in the book, and — as I say — it made for enjoyable reading.

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Cave Days [Haiku]

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in the cave,
 surrounded by stone,
  no sight; no sound.

Cave Monster [Common Meter]

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I sit within an empty cave.
   It's empty, that's for sure.
 It's dark, so dark that nothing shines.
   What sound is that? A purr?

I'm in this cave, and not alone,
   but with what I can't say.
 It's in the back where it's jet black --
   a predator? Or prey?

I'm walking now; I don't dare run.
   the ground is all cockeyed
 with stalagmites and stalactites.
   I grope, in need of guide.

And feeling through Stygian space,
   I bust open my head.
 Warm blood, I feel, run down my face.
   I'm squeezed by rising dread.

I hear a squeak, a mouse strolls through;
   then silence is restored.
 If only my mind were so rid
   of its outsized horrors.

Plays No Favorites [Haiku]

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sunlight breaks into
 the forest -- not favoring
  the tranquil yogi.

Leaf Enlightened [Common Meter]

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I stared, and stared, into a leaf
  until my vision changed.
 And I could see the whole, wide world
   so artfully arranged.

The leaf, it mapped my universe
   from atom to the sprawl.
 Compressed, layer-on-layer, there
    was one and, at once, all. 

But before I could grasp all that
   this vision truly meant,
  a gust of wind did catch that leaf,
     and fluttering it went.

Satori [Free Verse]

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It was a moment 
 of silent spaciousness.

In the midst of a fight,
 there was no enemy --
  just the effortless
   dance of the thing.

That moment 
 expanded to the infinite,
  & snapped back 
   to one tick after the tock.

Since then, 
 no catastrophe has felt 
  too great for a smile.

BOOK REVIEW: Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law by Busshō Lahn

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Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law: A Commentary on Hakuin's “Song of Zazen”Singing and Dancing Are the Voice of the Law: A Commentary on Hakuin’s “Song of Zazen” by Bussho Lahn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: December 20, 2022 [In India, may be out in your area.]

This book consists of a collection of essays inspired by the poem, “Song of Zazen,” written by the 18th century Zen master, Hakuin. Hakuin’s poem is brief (about forty lines,) and the essays composed by a present-day Zen priest (Lahn) offer commentary on a stanza-by-stanza basis. The book is divided into fourteen chapters, though the final chapter isn’t a stanza commentary.

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a great deal from it. The book benefits from the fact that the author is not rigidly sectarian. Therefore, the book is not doctrinaire, which warms the reader to the teachings. It’s also useful because it allowed the author to freely draw examples and quotes from a variety of sources, some of which may be more familiar or relatable to neophyte readers.

The last chapter offers a discussion of the fundamentals of zazen (seated meditation) as well as some other ancillary information that may be useful to readers new to Zen Buddhism, its practices, and its sutras. If you’re interested in Zen Buddhist meditation and philosophy, you may want to give it a look.


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