2009 05 17

The Sunday Morning Church of ATTENTION

Don’t make it a habit. This MAY Be the most profound enlightening statement I’ve written, and a key tenet in The Church of Attention. .

            I am challenged by the statements negative aspect, as in how can one ‘don’t-as in not? Many teachers have said affirmations, goals, declarations, primaries, vows, and intentions need to be framed in the positive, that we don’t hear the ‘not’. When I state I am not going to eat after 8pm, does my mind default to eating after 8pm?

            “That’s what you don’t want. What do you want?” Wise Buddis have asked,

            “Well I don’t want to make it a habit.”

            “That’s what you don’t want. What do you want?”

            “I want to consciously, deliberately, by design, choose, my reality, my life.”

            So when or how does my good intentions become a habit?

What is a habit?

Is it a fall from grace into a rut to doing the devils work Sleep walking, and becoming robotic. Letting our evil siblings loose. It is doing the same things and expecting different results. Indulging in mechanical reactions, tendencies, customs, practices, routine, patterns and addictions that allow others to indoctrinate me.

            Don’t make it a habit really means to make it how I want it. In the practice of aerobics and don’t make it a ‘should do, ought to go, have to’ but make it a decision to enjoy and appreciate, remembering my intention for aerobics.

            How do I stop from making ‘it’ a habit?

            Using the aerobics metaphor, my body will find the easiest way to do an exercise. It cheats. Doing crunches, if I don’t pay attention to form, instruction, and my intention, the legs take over and I cheat myself of the benefits of the exercise.

            I have a habit of watching my fingers as I type. This was a tough paragraph to type without watching, I keep cheating and looking. I get disturbed if I make a mistake. I feel very uncomfortable ungluing my eyes from the keyboard. It’s a battle to not watch my fingers. My habit trapped me until I recall the gradient approach atention and practice, and I free my attention, and stop looking.

            But a habit can free me to split my attention. Like multi-tasking, only it’s not all human doing. In aerobics I can keep the structure of the movement, but add a new way of doing the arms for increased cardio, or change the rhythm and create new more graceful movements. It’s a way of finding more moments in life, more time to be present. Finding the magic of the space behind a note, a beat, that allows more freedom of expression, to exercise more fully.

            Being aware of what’s a habit, and what’s not. Using the feedback to support goals. Don’t make anything a habit, unless it’s your intent. Without habits, we are the creator.

Namaste, Gary