meditation

Took a break from restructuring a long-form essay and meditated for a bit. The mind naturally went back to essay form. Instead of trying to “center,” I just let it run, and it was neat to see how I could resolve knots in the flow by stepping away. I could come back to the page with some concrete steps: ah, do A, B, C, etc.

On looking — There’s an art and power to looking; when you can really see, and observe, and guide your attention to aesthetic specifics of something, it closes a thought loop. It’s centering, maybe even more than the breathe.

What if looking and breathe went together? For example; as I write this, I’m now focused on my peripherals, and I see my hand

Did not expect Jerry Seinfeld to be promoting transcendental meditation.

After 15-30 seconds of having my eyes closed, I can sort of see through. No color or details obviously, but I can see forms: dark outlines of shapes (ie: if I’m holding up 1 or 2 fingers. I assume that some light can get through the eyelids (I don’t see this if I block my eyes with my other hand). Also wonder if any of this is the mind spatially re

“Illusory form walk” (to go for a walk and see everything as a dream / to see the impermanence in everything). Never knew there was a name for this. Really started happening to me in Miami in 2008/09.

I wonder how much “morning stillness” will effect your day. As in, if you wake up and constantly jump into your thoughts, notifications, and distractions, does that scatter-upon-waking effect just kill your force for the day? And if you instead watch your thoughts, let them pass, set intentions, and log, log, log, will the day be better?

I wrote a typewriter essay about DMT and the afterlife, and it’s making want to try DMT but I have that zinger of “death by astonishment” in my head. Wonder if DMT breahtwork or holotropic breathing are safer methods to learn to navigate those waters.

Similar to how buildings are oriented (NSEW) based on religious narratives, so to can you meditate in a direction based on an idiosyncratic narrative. In lodges the self in an environment, and increase the scale from room to earth.