no Right kind but only practices with different consequences
One of the little boys in my Aikido class at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center today asked what kind of meditation is the Right kind to do before class. Yes, he is a kiss-up but also very bright and gifted. The following was my obviously incomplete and appropriately brief response (more or less), based on a certain amount of personal experience and comparative mythological/religious graduate study. I'm looking for adult reaction/ response/ elaborations here.
Since there is no Right kind but only practices with different consequences, it may be useful to imagine that there are basically three kinds of mediation, categorized by objective:
1) focus on a particular idea/mantra/theme, as in prayers of gratitude, supplication, etc.
2) focus fully on each experience/thought/feeling that becomes clear, in order to fully receive it, as soon as it becomes distinguishable from background noise.
3) focus on breath and clear/release the mind of/from everything that enters it as much as possible in order to be simply present.
I suggested that the last, since it is most closely related to Zen and nearest to the kind of approach most find helpful when learning to work with conflict, is the kind most often recommended by Aikido practicioners of my experience, but that each would change the kind of training that followed, energetically speaking.
He followed the explanation with rapt nine-year-old attention but the first grader down the line from him ended up davining and playing with her neighbor's hair, so she may not have taken away a conviction to try all three at her earliest opportunity. | posted by Unknown @ 11/29/2005 11:28:00 PM
One of the little boys in my Aikido class at the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center today asked what kind of meditation is the Right kind to do before class. Yes, he is a kiss-up but also very bright and gifted. The following was my obviously incomplete and appropriately brief response (more or less), based on a certain amount of personal experience and comparative mythological/religious graduate study. I'm looking for adult reaction/ response/ elaborations here.
Since there is no Right kind but only practices with different consequences, it may be useful to imagine that there are basically three kinds of mediation, categorized by objective:
1) focus on a particular idea/mantra/theme, as in prayers of gratitude, supplication, etc.
2) focus fully on each experience/thought/feeling that becomes clear, in order to fully receive it, as soon as it becomes distinguishable from background noise.
3) focus on breath and clear/release the mind of/from everything that enters it as much as possible in order to be simply present.
I suggested that the last, since it is most closely related to Zen and nearest to the kind of approach most find helpful when learning to work with conflict, is the kind most often recommended by Aikido practicioners of my experience, but that each would change the kind of training that followed, energetically speaking.
He followed the explanation with rapt nine-year-old attention but the first grader down the line from him ended up davining and playing with her neighbor's hair, so she may not have taken away a conviction to try all three at her earliest opportunity. | posted by Unknown @ 11/29/2005 11:28:00 PM
I'm supposed to be writing on my Diss, so it must be time to catch up in blogland.
Aidan has just finished his first year at University and drove his mother and I to visit Heidi and Marcia for Thanksgiving week. Nicole and Jay are coming on Thursday. Just kidding about the Freshman thing. It only seems like he will be driving soon.
DAMN he is growing fast. My mother (Paula Craig) asks me what his transitions have been and pointedly reminds me to write them in his baby book, of which we have none. I suppose our blogs will stand for this, so I think I'll be more specific about that kind of thing here and try to catch up on some history. | posted by Unknown @ 11/22/2005 01:58:00 PM
Covering some ground...
My Dad and Stepmom are in town this week for their first visit with Aidan. Today we went to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. It was vunderbar!
There has been an outing to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens at Strybing Arboretum, several evening movies at home, great conversations, a bottle or two of wine, and lots of baby contact. He loves to smile and coo at his grandparents.
Leon Regelson, Iris McGinnis, and Ed Correia (photo coming) have agreed to be Aidan's Godsquad (godparents). I'm working on an edit of the traditional Methodist baptism service to shape it in less dominating and more inclusive directions while retaining its specifically Christian character. The project is harder than I had thought it would be. That seems less surprising in retrospect.
In Other News, Aidan's Auntie Nicole is moving to the Bay Area today! She will be able to hang with her nephew and we are so looking forward to more time together. With Mikaela Keepin here to live with her sister Naomi, most of the women of our generation (save my sis) are in this area. Wahoo! Nicole's sweetie Jay's nose is pictured in the upper left. The rest of him is as agreeable, he does wonderfully fascinating things with Aidan's little mouse puppet, and is altogether a mensch.
| posted by Unknown @ 11/13/2005 08:10:00 PM
