A Simple Sentence
 It happened that only recently I had come across a sentence in reading old
Chinese Zen texts which had brought me up short. This sentence had something in it so
precise, so arrogantly irrational, so unrelenting, so unashamedly illogical, as if it had
been formulated from a framework no longer accessible to us:"When you understand that the external world has nothing to do with your real self, and you act accordingly, you then return to your original state." Over a period of weeks, I found myself thinking often about this sentence. When the ideas about using old words as a mental saltlick began to develop, this sentence seemed a good candidate, or tool, to use in the experiment I had in mind. My plan was simple: to silently repeat the statement at a forced, very slow speed. As I began the experiment, I quickly developed several variations. 1. To think the statements one syllable at a time, with each syllable carefully long and drawn out. Thus: "Wwwwhhheeennn yyyyyyouououou uuuuuunnnnnn..." and so on, with the result that saying the complete sentence would take as much as five minutes of
clock time. As I did this, I found that the very sounds of the phonemes became more and
more prominent in my mind. Often, I also found the muscles in my mouth moving (silently)
as the sounds formed in my mind. A peculiar internal "hearing" of the very
sounds occasionally occurred. 4. To repeat the sentence several or even many times. 5. To focus, while doing the lick, on nature. Ideally, outside, where you can see grass, trees, sky. If you’re inside, look at a plant, or a patch of blue through a window will do. Wanting that, use a nature photograph or painting. Or just close your eyes and imagine a landscape.
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