Day Nine: The afterimage of a candle flame

Posted by on Jul 7, 2007 in Meditation | No Comments

I’m writing this immediately after my session, unusually, with the afterimage of the candle flame on my retinae. I’m doing my blogging now because (a) it’s the weekend, so I don’t have to dash off to work, and (b) because I’m off to a wedding later, so I won’t have any time to do it this evening.

The session was a bit of a mixture. It’s amazing just how much not there you can be. I’m sitting on the floor, eyes wide open, staring directly into a candle flame. But I’m not seeing it. I’m thinking about terraforming, or writing this blog entry, or what I’m going to get Kendra and Kevan for their wedding present. I can be staring right at a bright burning candle, and not see it at all.

On the other hand, I had a couple of good moments later, where I managed to stay focused, though it was quite hard work. It’s far easier to drift off and follow the random thoughts that pop into my mind, rather than letting them go and carrying on with what I was doing. It’s a little microcosm of my life, really.

I guess that makes sense — perhaps if I can change it in microcosm, it’ll change in macrocosm; that’s really the essence of this whole experiment…

« Day Eight: Flicker | Quick Day Ten Catchup, and Day Eleven »