… was the rally cry I woke up from my dream with. I’m still somewhat astonished when a dream so blatantly addresses something weighing on my mind. Lately I’ve been pondering meditation and how to advance beyond my current simplistic and infrequent practice. My dream began with me in a room by myself thinking about my meditation dilemma. What would make it easier or better? Maybe I should buy a book. While I’m thinking about this, in my dream, a looming voice comes from the background “you need to disconnect”. Maybe a google search. Again the voice from the background “you need to disconnect”. I think maybe I should find a class. Then the voice again “you need to disconnect”. So I say back to the voice, rather impatiently I might add, and with a little attitude, “Duuhhhh, I know I need to disconnect, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. How do I disconnect and clear my mind so I can meditate”. The voice answers “No! You need to literally disconnect! Power
off anything with electricity around you. Shut off the TV, no radio, no ipod, no computer and no phones. And don’t have them in standby mode or silent, you need to actually power them down and disconnect them.” “Oh”, I say,
“but, I don’t know about that. What if someone needs to get in touch with me? What if there’s an emergency?” The voice suggests I pick a day or time of day that’s less likely to have someone wanting to contact me. I argue there is no good time, that’s the problem, you can never tell when someone would want to get in touch with you and if it is important. I know! I’ll get Debbie and Katy to do it with me. It’ll be fun, it’ll make us closer. We can talk about our individual experiences afterwards. This will be GREAT! Then it hits me, and it’s not the voice telling me, it’s my idea – if everyone else I knew, in addition to Debbie and Katy, were disconnecting at the same time, the risk of missing an important call would be tremendously decreased because no one would be connected to call. So I gather everyone I know into a large room and explain the idea. I tell them how great it would be to do it all together.
To start we would pick one time per week , say Sundays from 12:00-2:00
Central Time. Everyone would disconnect during that time in their respective time zones. At first there were grumblings in the crowd but then I poured it on,
passionately expressing the advantages to be gained from such a relatively small comittment. People were starting to come around and I was getting more excited until finally I yelled: “COME ON, SUNDAYS 12:00-2:00 WHO’S WITH ME!” Then I woke ;-)
This dream has stayed with me since and has made me both giggle and think. And although I’m not sure how it’ll work out, next Sunday, Jan 15, 2012, from 1:00-3:00, I’m giv’n it a try. I may try a couple of shorter
periods through this week to work up to it. And I don’t think it would be wise for me to jump to 2 hours worth of meditating right off the bat. But I think I can disconnect for 2 hours, I can probably find a window within it to meditate a solid 20-30 minutes. This will allow some time for a couple of “start_overs” when my mind wanders ;-) I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sylvia
"Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of
entering into the quiet that's already there buried under the 50,000 thoughts
the average person thinks every day “ - Deepak Chopra
off anything with electricity around you. Shut off the TV, no radio, no ipod, no computer and no phones. And don’t have them in standby mode or silent, you need to actually power them down and disconnect them.” “Oh”, I say,
“but, I don’t know about that. What if someone needs to get in touch with me? What if there’s an emergency?” The voice suggests I pick a day or time of day that’s less likely to have someone wanting to contact me. I argue there is no good time, that’s the problem, you can never tell when someone would want to get in touch with you and if it is important. I know! I’ll get Debbie and Katy to do it with me. It’ll be fun, it’ll make us closer. We can talk about our individual experiences afterwards. This will be GREAT! Then it hits me, and it’s not the voice telling me, it’s my idea – if everyone else I knew, in addition to Debbie and Katy, were disconnecting at the same time, the risk of missing an important call would be tremendously decreased because no one would be connected to call. So I gather everyone I know into a large room and explain the idea. I tell them how great it would be to do it all together.
To start we would pick one time per week , say Sundays from 12:00-2:00
Central Time. Everyone would disconnect during that time in their respective time zones. At first there were grumblings in the crowd but then I poured it on,
passionately expressing the advantages to be gained from such a relatively small comittment. People were starting to come around and I was getting more excited until finally I yelled: “COME ON, SUNDAYS 12:00-2:00 WHO’S WITH ME!” Then I woke ;-)
This dream has stayed with me since and has made me both giggle and think. And although I’m not sure how it’ll work out, next Sunday, Jan 15, 2012, from 1:00-3:00, I’m giv’n it a try. I may try a couple of shorter
periods through this week to work up to it. And I don’t think it would be wise for me to jump to 2 hours worth of meditating right off the bat. But I think I can disconnect for 2 hours, I can probably find a window within it to meditate a solid 20-30 minutes. This will allow some time for a couple of “start_overs” when my mind wanders ;-) I’ll let you know how it goes.
Sylvia
"Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of
entering into the quiet that's already there buried under the 50,000 thoughts
the average person thinks every day “ - Deepak Chopra