An Artist's Reflections on Sitting By Dan Allison Everyday, more or less, I sit down on my meditation cushion, close my eyes, relax my body, and watch my thoughts. Then I get caught up in my thoughts. When I notice that I'm getting caught up in my thoughts, I let go of my thoughts as much as I can and return to the part of me that can witness the thoughts. Then I get caught up in my thoughts again, and I notice and let go again. I repeat this rhythmic back-and-forth game for about ten to twenty minutes. Then I open my eyes, bow, stand up, and go about my day. Why do I do this? How does it benefit me? How does it benefit my art? I don't really consider my meditation practice to be a "spiritual" practice per se. To put it another way, I don't really have any aspirations to become enlightened or experience one-ness with God or anything like that. I might have in the past, but today, I view my meditation practice more like I view my physical exercise. I go to the gym several times a week to strengthen my body and keep it healthy. I meditate for the same reason, except, instead of strengthening my physical body, I'm strengthening my sense of humor. In other words, by sitting and watching my thoughts everyday, I'm strengthening my ability to notice when I' m getting caught up in any situation I might find myself in, and notice when I'm taking myself too seriously. Hopefully, I can then let go of my seriousness, relax into a broader context, and see the humor and lightness of the situation more clearly. So how does this serve my art? When I can relax enough to let go of whatever I'm afraid of losing and see the bigger picture, I begin to notice patterns and connections that I didn't see before. And the more I relax, the deeper these patterns and connections go. After a while, I can start to adjust my perspective to be more in alignment with these deeper patterns, much like tuning a musical instrument so that it resonates more harmonically with itself and other instruments. When I do this, my art seems to automatically become an expression of that perspective. If you are a performing artist, you might have noticed how the more you are afraid of making a mistake while performing, the more likely you are to make a mistake. So to avoid making mistakes during a performance, you practice. You work very hard before the performance, practicing whatever it is you will be performing, so that when you're on the stage, you don't worry so much about making mistakes because you trust your ability to perform, and the performance becomes more effortless and joyful. I think meditation has a similar effect. Everyone is always perceiving, but when you meditate, you are consciously practicing perception. You are working to remove the obstacles that block clear perception, so that when you go out into the world and live your life, you worry less about making mistakes because you trust your ability to perceive clearly, and life becomes more effortless and joyful. How long do I meditate? One recommendation I would offer is to not to set a specific amount of time to meditate. In my experience, I've found it more beneficial to stop meditating before I become too frustrated or anxious, whether that happens after two hours or two minutes. After those emotions set in, forcing myself to keep sitting becomes more like self-inflicted punishment than practice, and it becomes counterproductive. It's like trying to lift more weight than your muscles can handle. You want to challenge yourself, not hurt yourself. On days when I'm particularly stressed, I'll probably only meditate for five minutes or so. If it's anymore than that, it just agitates me, which is not helpful. In those situations, it would probably be better to get together with some friends and tell jokes, or watch an episode of The Simpsons. That would be a much easier way to let go of tension and lighten your perspective, which is the aim of meditation. I would encourage any artist to give meditation a try. But when you don't find it helpful, drop it. For me, meditation means smiling more often and seeing more clearly and deeply. It's joyful and rewarding; and if it wasn't, I wouldn't practice it. —Dan Allison regularly offers newly created artwork on his site the (w)hole. He can be reached at dan [at] danallison [dot] org. NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER TO POLYSEMY? Make the choice to become one today — click here for POLYSEMY Print, or here for POLYSEMY Digital. ©2006 Polysemy. All rights reserved. |
