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Start meditating at work!!!
Vastmind
Memphis, TN Veteran
"... Here's a radical proposal: start your new meditation habit at work. Yup, that work. The office. Busy, stressful, un-meditation-friendly work.
It turns out, the office is actually an ideal place to meditate specifically because of those reasons. To quote one of my favourite films, "The Razor's Edge," in which Bill Murray's character searches for the meaning of life: "It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain." It's harder, but more rewarding, to be one in the office. "
Practical tidbits in an easy read....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/22/health/meditate-at-work/index.html
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Comments
In do this. In quiet moments, between customers, or while I am replacing stock on the shop floor, tidying the rails, I 'detach' and breathe, and focus on my actions, without commentary....
One of my jobs is as a light duty cleaner in a clothing store. Samu anyone?
It's definitely not easy though... imagine getting the floor nice and shiny, only to have people spill their drinks/food (who eats/drinks in a clothing store??) all over it moments later.
I do walking meditation around the building and around the inside courtyard in the evening, and "STOP" post it notes around the inside of my cube. I now make it a priority to meditate before meetings. It makes all the difference!!!!
For the past 4 years in lay life I actually almost always ONLY meditated at work during the week. Work was the one constant I could use to build my practice around. I would go to work 40 minutes early each day and do my walking and sitting meditation outside my office building.
I also took walk breaks during the day where I practiced my walking meditation. I would also take small one or two minute breaks at my desk throughout the day to follow my breath and compose myself.
of course I would be dealing with emergencies very often and be in the field a lot, so sometimes my schedule would go all hectic, but for some reason I just found work to be that grounding I needed to solidify a consistent meditation practice.
I often worked late so trying to keep a consistent night practice was tough, plus I was too tired all I wanted to do was lounge and sleep.
Luxury!
Part of my work week is during the weekends. Those days frequently have slow moments, when I'll take time to meditate between calls. So it's certainly possible, though I imagine it would be difficult if you're on the phone eight hours a day.
Ah, impermanence in action. Good fuel for your practice...
"It's easy to be a holy man on top of a mountain." It's harder, but more rewarding, to be one in the office. "
It's easier to be holy in seclusion but next to impossible to be one in a busy office. The best one can hope for is to remain calm and collected in the midst of all the hustle. This requires one to be aware of what the mind is doing at all times which is no easy thing.
Actually, there is no luxury in focusing on being mindful throughout your day and minding your breath, @namarupa.
It can be quite easy, I think: practice will make it become second nature.
What's the difference between sleeping on the job and meditating on the job ....to the uninitiated
If one were to lay down and close ones eyes to meditate, the boss might see this as sleeping on the job and if they sit upright in a chair with their eyes closed or open, the boss might think that they're just sitting around doing nothing ....Can't bloody win...
(Mind you some people do tend to nod off when meditating)
On a more serious note, being/staying mindful is something we can all do in any place and at any time and with practice it becomes second nature
the only time period where I was skirting Jhana(ie had access concentration) and saw my one and only nimitta was in Lay life almost two years ago. In fact that Nimitta came sitting at my desk at work before 9am start time.
I have yet to get to that level of calm since coming to the monastery and I had more "stress" then(interesting don't you think?)...but I'm wasn't combating an 1/8th of the mindstates I am now in the process of renouncing everything. I feel like I had it easy then LOL, but I hear it gets easier as you get further into monastic life.
It's all about priority... if you want to make your meditation a priority, it will become one, regardless of your situation.
Not strange at all. Confronting the mind is stressful wherever you are. At the office all the real mental issues were buried by work. As they say, an idle mind is the devil's playground or rather idle hands make the mind the devil's playground.
The priority is to know what the Buddha discovered under the Bodhi tree all those years ago.
That is where we come face to face the truth that the mind is the forerunner of all.
Mind is the forerunner of states. Mind is chief; mind-made are they.
Metta
This is easy (and less necessary) at my current summer job (afternoon to evening shift) of sitting in a parking garage and watching people come pick up their cars and drive away. It's much harder (and utterly necessary) in my regular job of working with kids in schools. Lol!
Hey Beej!!! Nice to see you
@TheBeejAbides
@Vastmind -
And nice to see you! Cha cha cha!
don't know why my smiley guy is green... these careless fingers? he's supposed to be sunshiney yellow. lol.
We don't have those any more....