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 I, as you would expect, immediately ran up against the
"chattering monkey" phenomenon well-known to anyone who has undertaken
disciplined meditation. The mind, our compulsively thinking, abstraction-loving, busy,
busy, busy mind quickly tires of this nonsense and goes veering off in its habitual 10,000
directions. As with meditation, one notices this and gently guides the mind back to the
business at hand.I also found that the quality and focus of awareness changed. At times I would be acutely aware of the sounds themselves. At other times, the rhythm would be uppermost. Or at still other times, the larger meaning of each statement would hover as I forced the slow utterance. |