The next installment of this post is brought to you by Meditation: Now or Never by Steve Hagen. Often times I look up what books I can read on my iPad through the local library for free, and it looked interesting. Really enjoyed it – it isn’t a self-help book like some meditation books.

I have this little routine for after work (it is a little different than my morning routine at work). Since I get out of work about half an hour before my other carpoolers, I usually take a walk. It gives me a chance to unwind a bit and it is decent exercise to boot.

One of the meditation “methods” in the book above is a way of meditating while walking. Any practiced meditator will tell you that often times when people just begin meditating, people find it difficult to clear their minds. Where this book departs from the norm is that it semi-promotes this – that instead of trying to clear your mind, you should try to focus on the present, and if you notice you mind drifting, just take note of it and ease back into the moment. To this day I’m still not very good at it, but I did have an interesting day a while back.

One day, I was doing my walking meditation and largely failing, as my mind was completely adrift. I was not anywhere close to focusing on the moment, and most of what happened was quite nearly gibberish. Or was it? Note: I did change some details of the following, so the silliness wouldn’t be distracting.

I was imagining myself conversing with an old man as we were walking through a wood. We passed by a small tree. In the middle of the conversation, the man spoke to me:

“What is this thing?”

“Tree,” I replied.

We continued to walk some way. Soon, another small tree came into view.

“And what is this?” he asked.

“Tree, I’ve told you,” I replied, wondering if the man was a fool. My inner thought showed on my face.

“You may be right. If I cut that tree,” he said, pointing back at the first one, “will you take it?” he added, pointing at the one we were now standing beside.

Quite obviously upset now, to be talking with such a fool, I responded, “What do you mean? I can’t take this if you cut that one. Of course there are two–“.

WHAM. Struck by a realization, the daydream was immediately over and I was back in the real world, in the moment. I was actually so surprised by what I had just realized that I even stopped walking in the real world.

I’m now going to go line by line with an excerpt of my thought process immediately following this moment. Believe it or not, this is still not going to illustrate very well how quickly my mind was now racing, realization after realization, question after question.

My mind immediately simplifies my surroundings.
I do not take in my environment.
A tree is a tree is the same tree, my mind sees them all as the same thing.
Why do I do this?
They are not the same thing.
My brain sees the world around me and immediately puts the word “tree” in my conscious mind.
Do I do this with other things?
Yes, you see a building and it enters your mind as building.
The only things this doesn’t happen for you is smart design and aqua- or hydroponic gardening.
How long has this been happening?
Good question.
To see the world as it is is a childlike quality.
Do I do this with people?
Those you do not know.
How does this affect me socially?
Often times your responses and prompts are based on what you think is expected.
Your actions may or may not reflect how you truly feel, who you truly are.

This went on for quite some time. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I have created a sort of disconnect between myself and the world around me. Furthermore, I was often operating on what I called “autopilot,” or without much conscious intervention. My world had become the words automatically generated by my brain – but as I mentioned in part one of this post, words are merely symbols. They are not the true object, and in living in a world of words I found myself unable to connect with the beautiful, true world. I’ve since begun looking at the world with my eyes, not my brain.

I do have more to say on this topic, so perhaps at a later date this will turn into a 3-part post, or maybe even 4.