Explorations
Zen Memory Exercise
by Peter Shepherd
When you look back at what you have been doing, the moments you find easiest to recall are the times when you were most conscious or "awake". The following is a time-honoured Zen approach to raising the level of consciousness.
Go over, in your mind, the precise events of the last hour, paying attention to all the sensory modalities: sight, sound, smell, emotions, touch, movement.. Get as much detail as you can, creating a multi-media film in your mind. Then go over it again, filling in the gaps, until you have as complete a picture of the last hour as possible.
Whenever you sit down, having done a cycle of action such as going shopping, a board meeting or whatever, again, go over the sequence of events in precise detail. Extend the above exercise from one hour up to the last 24 hours and then the last week, month and eventually, the past year.
With practice, you will find that you get better and better at doing this and that as a result you stay more fully conscious in the here-and-now.
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