When I first learned to meditate, something amazing happened to me. It happened one day, quite spontaneously.
At that time I was working as a lawyer and used to walk down a small lane to the train station on my commute to work. It’s not an especially beautiful lane – a concrete walkway, metal gates on one side, and some bushes and shrubs on the other side. I must have walked exactly this same route a thousand times before.
Except today was different.
I couldn’t explain it, but it was like I was seeing this place for the first time. I saw bees moving frantically among the flowers. The colors were incredibly vivid. Were these same flowers here yesterday? If someone come in the middle of the night and changed everything? It felt like this. There were so many details that I had never seen before in my life. It was unnerving and, in a way, almost terrifying. Usually I walked very fast and determined, but now my pace has slowed down. I looked around. There was so much life. A lot of movement. I felt an emotion that was not entirely familiar to me in those days … pure joy. I could feel it intensely in my body. I just wanted to enjoy all this beauty. He had been asleep, dead, and now, he was finally awake.
It is not an uncommon experience when someone begins to mediate. As we begin to slow down and stop living so much in our heads, we may experience a change in perspective. Sometimes it’s more gradual and subtle, but in my case it was quite sudden and dramatic.
In the weeks and months that followed, I got to enjoy my daily walk on this little trail. I no longer listened to my iPod. I heard the signals of the birds and the wind moving through the trees. Every day I came to the start of the lane expecting something magical.
Except I could never get back that first moment of sheer wonder. Over time, walking the lane became a familiar routine. It was no longer an enchanted place. Little by little, I regained my old way of being. I still enjoyed my walk to work. And still I found it enriching to be outside but the magic was gone at least for the moment that I enjoyed in my life.
Why did this happen?
What changed?
Irish writer and philosopher once said, “Peoples on a planet without flowers would think that we must be mad with joy all the time to have such things with us.”
Can you imagine what it would be like? If you are that kind person from another planet who had never seen a flower before? How do you think you would react? You would almost certainly stop whatever you are doing. Naturally, she would ask herself the question: “My God! . What the heck is that wonderful thing of nature ? “There is probably a feeling of intense curiosity in my mind & heart about nature that I never forget. Perhaps you come closer to investigate? All your senses are alert. What does this object look like? What does it smell like? How does it feel? You may notice all sorts of little details that are just obvious when you look closely … delicate and intricate structures, subtle hues of color, an intoxicating scent?
How do you think you would feel right now?
Except here on Earth, flowers are everywhere. They are common places. We see them all the time. Every now and then we can see a particularly beautiful flower and comment on how pretty it is: “Oh, another flower, a yellow one. That’s good. “It’s a fleeting moment. There may be appreciation, but there is no real curiosity, no charm, no wonder. For most of us, we are certainly not” crazy with joy “!
We’ve all probably experienced how something wonderful turns mundane over time. Little by little we began to take it for granted. Little by little, the shine fades. It’s what happened to me in the weeks and months after my initial experience walking down the road. Without knowing it, I stopped seeing the world with new eyes.
This is simply how the human mind is conditioned to function. If something is very familiar and not threatening, we generally don’t pay much attention to it. Another sunset. Another tree. Another forest. Another river. Another mountain. Whatever is. We have seen it all before. They all merge into one.
On the other hand, if something is new or different, we are naturally curious and want to investigate. We stopped. We pay attention.
Think about what it’s like to be on vacation in a new city. Everything is a bit unknown. There is a lot of interest. People look different. We may not understand or recognize your unique language and gestures. The architecture is unusual. Trees and birds are different. Is this new city much prettier or more interesting than yours? Objectively, probably not. So why is the experience in the life so much more enriching?
It turns out that the new environment is not the decided factor at all while you are free with nature. The experience is enriching mainly because of our way of thinking. We are curious. We are exploring. We are seeing it with new eyes. There is a sense of wonder. Literally, the quality of our care determines our experience. If we could adopt this same “vacation” mentality in our daily life in our hometown … if we could see with fresh eyes all the time, then surely every day would be a vacation.
So what should we do when the mind is so conditioned to ignore the things in life that are familiar to us?
How do we cultivate this sense of wonder and curiosity that is so crucial to a nurturing and enriching experience?
Well, it’s extremely simple, although it took me a long time to figure it out myself.
The first step is to realize this natural tendency of the mind to ignore information that it considers “nonessential.” Our usual state is not paying attention. To break this habit, it is first necessary to acknowledge the existence of the habit.
The second step is to realize that mindfulness is a tool. We control that tool. We always have a choice. At any moment, we can stop and choose to pay attention to something & sometime. More importantly, we can also choose “how” & “When” we pay attention. We can get closer or decide to take a broader perspective. We can choose to get involved in a particular sense. Our eyes are like a camera. Our ears are like a microphone. Our skin and nervous system allow us to explore our world in incredible detail. Try it right now. See how much control you have over how the world lives. There is always a choice.
The third step is a bit more subtle, and looking back I can see that it is the aspect that was missing from my focus as I was walking down the lane all those years ago, trying in vain to regain that elusive sense of wonder and fear. wonder. We must let go of all expectations. The more I “tried,” the closer I got to that lane with a memory of “how it was” and an expectation of “how it should be,” the further I got away from the open and curious state of mind that invited my initial experience. Only a gentle and open curiosity, the willingness to look again with “new eyes” and see things exactly as they are without filter, without explanation and without comparison can open the door.
Easier said than done? Try it. For starters, when you’re out in nature, stop putting names and labels on things: “that’s an oak tree, that’s a singing blackbird.” Words sometimes prevent us from seeing with new eyes. The next time you see a tree, imagine that you are like that person from another planet that Iris Murdoch spoke about, who is seeing a tree for the first time. Look for the mundane and ordinary places and look with new eyes: your backyard, your local park, the little path you walk every day on the way to work.
Let go of expectations.
Slow down.
Pay attention.
This is not something complicated or new. Every four-year-old experiences the world with a natural sense of curiosity and wonder. We just forgot how.
Give it a try and see for yourself.
