Like many kids growing up in the 60’s, I got “into” yoga and other eastern practices at a very early age. I did Aikido for many years. Studied Japanese in university. Tried Transcendental Meditation. Spent years in ashrams, monasteries and temples, communing with monks and other sages from many denominations. I’ve always had an interest in what we call in Psychology today, Transpersonal Psychology; how people search for transcendent meaning, i.e., meaning that transcends our death.
Some 20 years back, I took a mindfulness meditation course with one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s senior students. We walked for hours at an excruciatingly slow pace, staring at the ground and attending to each gruellingly slow step. We then ate lunch in absolute silence, slowly bringing each mouthful from fork to mouth and then chewing it to death. I almost lost my marbles. At a certain point, the Zorba in me rebelled and I realized this just wasn’t for me.
Mindfulness is really big these days. So I was pleased to read this most wonderful article by Gina Barecca, that gives a very Greek twist to the whole experience of mindfulness. A wonderful read.
You want more than to be “in” the moment because being “in” it isn’t enough. You want to throw your arms around it and hold onto it, wringing every bit of intensity, significance and pleasure from the moment the way you’d wring water out of a wet cloth.