Words to Ponder: Contemplative Practices Part ll

Next up: Meditation
As I have written in the first part of my fourth Words to Ponder post, My Path from Loneliness and Insecurity
to Strength and Inner-Directedness, the second part looks at and briefly discusses through my own words and/or a representative video several stress reducing behaviors I have garnered or been introduced to over many years.

As I have written in the About Me section of my website, it was the 1970’s and I started practicing meditation. I felt alone in this until I met a like-minded soul. Books were my friends and mentors, as I ventured deeply into self-contemplation and what I now consider a solitary, monastic expression. I slept on the floor, awakened at 4 in the morning, and attempted to find the correct sitting posture to turn inward and shut off my rambling mind.

In the introduction of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, Richard Baker Roshi, he writes, “Beginner’s Mind…is the open mind, the attitude that includes doubt and possibility, the ability to see all things fresh and new…Beginner’s mind is the practice of Zen mind.”

It is the open mind which from moment to moment I have glimpses of, that enables me to comfortably in my human awkwardness, live with doubt and possibility.