I like timers. I have bought quite a few for use around the house. The West Bend timers will count down and ring at the end. The single battery lasts a long time. We use one for meditation: ten minutes.
work nicely. I select the face of the block I want. I turn the cube so that face is on the top. Immediately, it starts ticking off the time. When the time is up, it rings until I turn the 0 face onto the top. There is a little window where you can see the exact amount of time left if you need to. A red light blinks when the timer begins and it blinks in double time during the last 30 seconds. Nice arrangement, especially for repeating the same interval as when watering each of a set of bushes for a set time.
One of my favorite timers is the one in the clock app on the first page of iPad apps. It is easy and quick to set. As soon as the timer is started, large digits show the time remaining in the center of a circle. Meanwhile, a bright red rim fills in a ring around the circle. The software is written to make half of the circle red when half of the time has elapsed regardless of the actual interval being used.
For the best meditation and mind training, it is best to try to keep one's attention on the target, be it one's breath or a spot on the wall or both. So, a timer that I can forget during the time, one that does not call attention to itself until the time is up, is best. So, the cube is good for quickly beginning a timed 10 minutes. The iPad timer can be read quite a distance away so unless I turn the iPad away or cover it, it is tempting to keep checking how much time has elapsed.
You can buy expensive meditation timers with a chime, some tone that is not supposed to alarm or disturb the meditation. I prefer the cube for convenience and for the challenge of trying to accept the sudden noise calmly and not jump when it starts. I keep quieting myself and reminding me to accept a sudden noise calmly. I did pretty well today.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
