Once, I paid a professional hypnotist to put me into a trance and let me experience hypnosis. She asked for a goal of the session. Weight loss? Quit smoking? I finally settled on asking for "new eyes", greater ability to see each day and each scene and each person anew. I am a cogitating sort of person, given to thinking and imaging and other mental antics. I thought it would be valuable to try to lessen the influence of previous experience and preconceived notions in favor of concentrating more on the present moment and its contents, its sights and sensations.
I had (and still have) no very complete way of evaluating the result but I felt that I was able to be more in the Now, this moment, and a little less focused on what's next. The Buddhists have many images and stories about shelving one's ideas and the past and seeing what actually IS right NOW.
The quote in Friday's post from Thich Nhat Hahn advising quelling an argument right off instead of pulling out one's argumentative apparatus and engaging in discussion of issues and grievances used the image of putting out the fire first and finding the cause later. Several times, I have read a sermon by the Buddha on giving medical care immediately to a man shot with an arrow and finding the perpetrator afterwards. Both of these images can be captioned "Get your priorities straight" but that caption uses words from planning, which leads to the future again.
When a group of Americans first arrived at a Thai forest monastery, they were greeted by the abbot and given an overview of what they would study. He picked up a drinking glass and said it was already broken. It wasn't (yet) but he spoke of using the realization that it might be at any time to emphasize to oneself that just now, the glass was whole and usable. It could be appreciated for its current state.
In one of Thich Nhat Hahn's books, he stated that when looking at a flower, one could see a pile of manure. That comment grabbed me. Why spoil a nice view with an ugly one? His point was followed by the advice to see a flower when viewing a manure pile. Seeing the cycle of birth and rebirth helps us appreciate that things grow, mature, die and are replaced with new life. Ever since, I have had a lot more respect for manure and decay. They are flowers and new life under construction.
