Contemplative Journal Assignment #4 Beholding

Contemplative Journal Assignment #4 Beholding

Contemplative Journal Assignment #4
Beholding

For this week’s practice, find a natural visual object, event, or landscape that you like—something you can observe quietly for at least 10 minutes per session and 3 times during the week.

Possibilities:

  • lie down at the foot of a large tree and look up into its branches and leaves;
  • lie down where you have a good view of the sky and watch the clouds or, if at night, the moon-stars-planets-clouds;
  • sit by a lake and look just at the water;
  • sit before a potted flower;
  • sit beside a flower garden and observe the flowers and leaves and soil, including any buzzing creatures that might zip in and out;
  • sit where you have a clear and intense view of the sunset;
  • sit beside the babbling brook on campus (right next to South Engineering and across the streetfrom Minard Hall on Albrecht Blvd.), someplace where you have a good view of the flowing water;
  • drive way out on one of the interstates and then find a country road where you can sit in your car or on the ground and have a vast view of the open prairie;

--and so on.

Follow these steps:

  1. Whether you’re lying or sitting, straighten your spine gently and relax your muscles. If you’re sitting in a chair, keep your feet fairly flat on the floor (not crossed). If you’re lying, you can stretch out your legs or keep them up and bent at the knees. Whatever feels good. Let your arms and hands fall wherever they naturally want to go.
  2. Just let yourself feel like warm butter. Really relax. Get melty.
  1. Come into yourself and quiet down.
  1. Do a minute of gentle breathing, in and out, very slowly, following your breath.
  1. Now look at the thing, whatever it is you’ve selected to see. Just look. Be a kid again and observe it as though you’ve never seen anything like it before. Think of seeing as a form of play—fun all by itself and with no exterior purpose. You might even sort of “watch it,” almost like you’d watch TV, just with careful attention and interest. Fascination is ok; wonder is ok; quiet appreciation is ok…
  1. …but don’t think about the thing, or at least keep thoughts to a minimum. Don’t cogitate facts, don’t think about what it reminds you of, don’t use it as a springboard for a daydream. Simply look. Very, very closely.
  1. Notice the thing’s colors, shapes, and textures and their beauty. Notice any big or even tiny changes in color or movement, minute by minute or even second by second.
  1. Look very, very slowly over the whole thing: up to down, side to side, center to margins. Let your eyes move over the thing.
  1. Let your eyes stop in places. Zoom in on details and observe one or many for at least a good minute each.
  1. Notice the play of light on the thing, if any (does it sparkle or glare? is it waxy, bright, subdued, or shrill? is it steady or intermittent? does the light look warm, cold, hard or soft?)
  1. If/when your mind wanders, as soon as you notice this, simply come back to the thing. Look closer. All of it and parts of it.
  1. If you begin to get sleepy, notice the feeling, tell it to “come back a little later,” then zero back in on the thing.
  1. Behold.

Questions:

  1. How did this experience go in general, especially in comparison to the other practices you’ve done?
  2. What was the “high point” of the 10 minutes? What was the “low point”?
  3. What did it feel like to simply look for looking’s sake? Had you ever “just looked” at a thing before?
  4. At the end of the week, did you notice anything you simply missed earlier in the week or any other time in your life when you had seen the thing?
  5. How quiet or active was your mind?
  6. Did you notice anything new about your mind?

1

Top View