| Are you one of those people who says, "I used to | | | | because if you lost your concentration, even for a |
| meditate" or "I meditate sometimes" but "I can't | | | | moment, a part of your body would bobble; you |
| keep it up because I don't have time"? Meditation | | | | could see the result of that on the ice as an |
| comes in many forms - and it may be something you | | | | imperfection from the ideal. (Today, the emphasis is |
| do without noticing. | | | | on freeskating, the jumps and spins skated to music, |
| Last week I had lunch with a friend, Tim, who, with | | | | because that is what sells on TV, and sadly, most of |
| only a little prompting, began to rhapsodize about fly | | | | the "figure" skating is lost). You skated the same |
| fishing. You know, standing hip-deep in a stream, | | | | figures over and over and over again, for years |
| casting and waiting and reeling them in, only to let | | | | sometimes, till you got them right in front of a |
| them go, because after all, this is about the | | | | mostly impartial audience. |
| experience, not about eating the fish. It had always | | | | And then, today, I found this article in the NY Times, |
| seemed kind of silly to me, but not when Tim got | | | | "Your Brain on Baseball". David Brooks talks about |
| done telling me about it. He told me about the | | | | training the unconscious mind to do things well |
| wonders of being still, connected to all of nature, | | | | through repetition and about how some things are |
| hearing the rush of water over rapids and the breeze | | | | done better without thinking about them. |
| ruffling the trees, feeling the sun on his face, seeing | | | | Does this all sound like meditation to you? It sure |
| the glint of sunlight on tree leaves, the beauty of | | | | does to me. In all these cases, your focus solely on |
| myriad colors in a freshly caught rainbow trout, the | | | | what you're doing chases out random, or even |
| smell of the stream and the fish. He described the | | | | pointed, conscious thoughts, and allows for a wider, |
| sensitivity he felt in his hands because of the | | | | occasionally mystical, experience. Maybe you can get |
| lightweight equipment, and the connection to, no, the | | | | that fly fishing, or doing baseball drills, or shooting |
| dance with the fish as he reeled it in. He's been doing | | | | basketball freethrows. or golfing, or cycling, or |
| it for over 20 years, and it's always a thrill. | | | | running. I do it when I walk, either focusing |
| That reminded me of figure skating in my childhood. | | | | completely on my surroundings, or on an affirmation |
| It was different back then, because people actually | | | | (a kind of mantra) as I walk. I have a friend who |
| skated figures - the famed figure eights, as well as | | | | goes there just by vacuuming - she gets so |
| three lobed figures, called serpentines, and circles | | | | absorbed in the motion and the look of the carpet! |
| within circles, in many variations - forwards, | | | | So if you "don't have time to meditate", maybe you |
| backwards, turning once or twice in the middle of | | | | can meditate just by focusing on your senses and |
| each circle, and on and on. This required intense | | | | performance in sports or even mundane tasks. How |
| concentration on very slow, fluid movements, | | | | can you incorporate meditation into every day life? |