Wednesday, October 16, 2013

My 5000 Character Response to an OK Cupid Lady Who Asked Me the Simple Question "Do You Meditate?" ***UNEDITED****

Shelli~

I've written quite the response to what was probably a very simple 'yes or no' type question so in the interest of common human decency, I'll turn this into kind of a really crappy 'Choose Your Own Adventure' where you can either pick the Cliff Notes version or the Non-Cliff Notes version. If picking the Cliff notes version, simply read the response then skip down to the second row of colons :) If reading the unabridged response, enter at your own risk ;)

"Do you meditate?"
CLIFF NOTES VERSION: Why yes. Yes I do.

BEGIN NON-CLIFF NOTES VERSION HERE:::::::::::::::::
To me practice is where all the present stuff becomes difficult. The concepts are a little hard to grasp at first - it takes experience and playing around with what present mind is, like how present is present mind? LOL Then once I've thought about it a great deal actually working with it is another completely different challenge. I do sitting meditation for about 35 minutes daily now. I had been on a trip out west recently (end of July) and kind of fell off the routine, but I've gotten things back now, but the mindfulness part is still difficult. Also I'm working on another kind of standing meditation for about 20-35 minutes everyday too.

Its easier to work on immediate mindfulness to me with the standing, because I'm more focused on different body systems: how my structure is aligned, what muscles are tensed, which ones are relaxed, relaxing more, relaxing more without losing the structure, paying attention to breathing, dropping my intention all the way through the floor (this one probably need more explanation, we'll save that for later ;) ) then there's the burning out of the muscles at certain points which is takes a lot of focus or maybe I should say NOT-focus - like you have to separate yourself from it. Since I've been working on this stuff, its super clear that your body is not you. Your mind isn't really you either. There's something else that is deeper that is the heart of your being. You can disconnect your body from that 'heart' and the same with the mind - or at least the thinking part of the mind. There's an awareness part of the mind that rides above the thinking, not sure about disconnecting that (actually I haven't even thought about disconnecting that until I just wrote it right now). Anyway... this is probably waaaaay too detailed of an answer for your "Do you meditate?" question. Its nice to write stuff down though as it kind of clarifies thoughts and makes them easier to communicate.

I do the sitting, standing and then I work on other Tai Chi exercises (I've been doing Tai Chi for about 4.5 years now and started teaching about a year ago). I've never been very hippie-ey or mystical or any of that so its interesting, because the more I mess with stuff the more weird stuff kind of crops up that falls into to those categories - to the point where I'm shedding a lot of my skeptic qualities. Being a skeptic isn't very fun anyway. I like and definitely adhere to the idea(s) that there is just some shit you can't explain scientifically right now, maybe in the future there will be more details uncovered but then there will be other unexplainable things. To me, being a skeptic takes all the wonder out of life. I'd rather have wonder and be a little more esoteric in my beliefs than be more scientific and have no wonder. It just seems like a funner time. And really making stuff funner is kind of the point ;)
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My name is Shane. For the last 18 years I've record bands in my own recording studio as my primary source of income. I do martial arts (Tai Chi and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). I write music. I write poetry. I drink copious, borderline obscene, amounts of tea which I prepare more Chinese-ey than say British-ey. I find it easier to have female friends than male ones, perhaps because I was raised primarily by my mother and grandmother. My recording studio is in the basement of the house I grew up in which is now in my name where I have lived for 34 years. I played in a band that toured across the country playing very many bad shows (LOL). I love all the things I do. Sometimes I wish I made a bit more money doing them, but I see that happening in time.

I started trying the internet dating thing, because I don't find myself in social situations all that often, plus I thought it would just be a new, different experience, which it is. I haven't found many promising connections through here - the physical meeting still trumps all in my opinion - all the numbers can line up and the photos can look great, but there is nothing on the internets that can quantify or qualify that physical spark or connection.

Esta es un digital tarjeta mas grande o un libro pequeño. Yo no sé ;)

-Shane

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