Re-entry

Time expands ..and I expand with it ~ breathing deeper ~ thinking clearer ~ speaking freer and listening longer ~ until a scheduled event approaches ~ like workshop time ~ meal time ~ or checkout time ~ then time compresses ~ and my breath becomes shallow ~ my mind races ~ my throat constricts ~ and I feel cramped and awkward ~ well, not anymore ~ I tell myself “fuck workshops ..meals ..and checkout” ~ I’ve never been jailed for truancy ~ gone hungry ~ or been charged an extra day for hanging out too long ~ I go to the round house ~ where there’s a different meditation guide ~ I listen closely ~ he reminds me of my own zen instructor ~ I follow what he says ~ I lean my upper body back and forth ~ feeling heaviness and tension in my abdomen and hips ~ then upright until I feel lightness ~ I lean my head back and forth ~ feeling heaviness turn into lightness ~ I feel my breath rise up ~ and lift my shoulders ~ next, I notice how my attention is like a flashlight ~ shining on my thoughts ~ although it is not my thoughts ~ shining on the space around me ~ although it is not the space ~ shining on the sound of his voice or the stream ~ although it is not the voice or the stream ~ ~ I play with the flashlight for a while ~ then gently bringing it back to the present moment ~ as the session ends ~ and I re-enter ordinary consciousness ~ the guide suggests that I pay attention to my ‘inner narrative’ ~ noticing the way I narrate my day.

I stay mindful of my inner narrative for as long as I can ~ I notice that it’s like a dialogue ~ I create a mental ‘instance’ of myself ~ that says “let’s go to the baths ..let’s go to the lodge ..look at the surface of that ocean” I create another ‘instance’ of myself ~ a critic ~ going “it’s too late for the baths ..too crowded in the lodge ..and the ocean looks like sludge” ~ the first ‘instance’ of myself goes “no, don’t say that ..it looks calm and peaceful” ~ sometimes I notice that the dialogue isn’t with me but with someone else ~ that's scary ~ I still create a mental ‘instance’ of myself ~ but an instance of somebody else as the critic ~ someone like my dad ~ my physical therapist ~ or some other authority figure ~ and we get into these arguments ~ like “it isn’t too expensive ..yes it is ..no it isn’t” ~ or ~ “I’m not wasting my time ..yes you are ..no I’m not” ~ and on and on ~ I’m reminded of a technique used in Gestalt therapy that might help settle matters ~ the way it works is that I retell the narrative ~ from the perspective of each person in the narrative ~ so, for instance ~ I become my dad ~ and tell myself what he is trying to tell me ~ with the idea that each person I create in the dialogue is really an aspect of myself ~ and a voice that I need to reclaim ~ in order to stop my mind from quarreling ~ and maybe get some peace around here.