Little ‘d’s.

‘With a small ‘d’, dharma and dhamma mean the smallest elements of existence that make up a moment of consciousness, such as the heat of a room, the background sounds or the lingering taste of the orange you have just eaten, the smell of incense, the thoughts you have. All these scraps of information are dharmas or dhammas. They are in a continuous pulse of movement, of coming to be and ceasing to be; nevertheless, we experience them as continous reality. THE DHAMMAPADA

I came across the above snippet last night and it has stayed with me all day. Somehow, pausing to consider the tiny, flashes of experience which occur as part of the day has made impermanence so much more meaningful.
I often reflect on impermanence, but I seem to have always considered it in relation to the ‘bigger’ things: the big emotions, difficulties, world events;  acknowledging their impermanence certainly and that they (in the grand scheme of things) are simply flashes in the pan of the universe,  but somehow today focussing on the impermanence of the micro-elements of my experience caused a shift for me.
Today during my short morning meditation, the things which normally would have distracted me and caused me irritation, someone banging pans in the kitchen, cars/trucks in the distance etc seemed nothing. Each one, I noted as one of those micro-elements, making up consciousness and then gone, only to be replaced with the next sound, feeling, observation. And I felt silly for having been irritated by these things in the past, when they really were so very fleeting. I realised that so much of my attention had been taken up in my annoyance over the disturbance to the tranquility I was trying to find, that I had inadvertently disturbed it further. I had created suffering.

I noticed more of these during the day, being with my children, and felt happy that I was noticing the precious fleeting moments and ‘being’ in them far more fully as a result.

Will be putting ‘little ds’ in my line of sight to remind me.

 

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Archery and Meditation

(Photo- Andreas Overland)

The whole family has recently joined an archery club. A ‘Come and Try’ session led us into this, but the feeling of calm and peace is what had us go back.

Since then we’ve bought our own bows and now each morning before work, and on return from work, I head down to the paddock to shoot for a good half hour at least.
I can’t believe this isn’t a recognised therapy for ADHD.

Standing alone in the paddock feeling the sun on my face as it rises and the cool morning  air all around me as I nock the arrow is something really special. The day is new and I’m already out there enjoying it ahead of most other people.

I take a deep breathe, bring my awareness to my body, posture and balance and raise the bow, looking ahead at the target. I draw the string to my face – feeling it rest against my cheek – never taking my eyes off the point of focus, pause … and release. Thud.
As I squint to see the result, my hand is already reaching out to my quiver for the next arrow.
And the whole process is repeated.

There’s peace in the simplicity of this ritual. It’s a meditation that lasts only a few moments, but instantly has me in ‘flow’ and time freezes as I find myself repeating the sequence over and over, for hours when time permits.

Every ADHDer should practise archery!