But lately I have taken to meditating in my small ‘Can’t swing even a small cat’ workshop. It’s cosy and cave like and I am surrounded by simple familiar tools and the happy memories of boat construction projects and modifications.
My simple blue topped meditation stool is almost as old as I am being an heirloom from the family home of sixty years ago. It’s monetary value is about NZ$10 but of course it is priceless. I remember sitting having meals on this stool from the age of five. The block of wood in front of the stool raises my upper legs so that they are parallel with the floor. The lack of a back rest on the stool means I have to sit without support and keep my spine nice and straight.
This morning when I arrived early, dressed in my boat working clothes I liked the familiar smell of wood shavings. Fifteen minutes meditation was a nice way to start the days work. This evening the setting sun shone through the window warming my back as I concluded the day with another fifteen minutes.
My meditation is pretty simple really. It consists of concentrating on my breathing and letting go of the endless chatter of the mind. It’s called ‘Calm Abiding’ meditation. I like the words ‘ Calm Abiding' and I like meditating here in my little room.
2 comments:
For me having a place and a time and a beginning routine is important. It's a way of telling myself I am serious about what is to follow. And also, it took me about a year to find the optimum way for me to sit: finding a way in which I could be still for the required time day after day without developing twitches or cramps or back aches. I've got it more or less sussed now, and I have my method. I believe it is best not to chop and change methods, though I am working on a second method, a sort of mindfulness technique which I can use while doing other things, particularly driving, which I do a lot of.
Yes, meditation wise I have come to know that we are creatures of habit and making a time and a place certainly facilitates my meditation. A lot of things went a bit haywire and were not doable after my big op and its only been the last 18 months that I have got back to meditating in a more consistent way.
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