127/180 - Doing Dishes

Monday 4:30 with Sherry --

Class was good. Balancing poses were especially good. I was focusing more on the visualization technique, and it helped me more easily into Standing Bow, which in turn helps me hold it a bit longer. Beyond that, I don't remember much, just that class was tough but satisfying.

Doing dishes is not my favorite task. So I was a bit surprised that the quote before the day 179 meditation was about doing dishes. Well, its really about being present, using doing dishes as an example. Basically, it says, when you are doing dishes you should only be doing dishes. You should focus in on the task and give yourself completely to it. Thus, doing dishes can be a sort of meditation. Tomorrow, I will try it. I tend to watch TV, chat, watch my dogs, listen to music -- just about anything that will take me a bit away from doing dishes. I'm curious to see if there really is something to this.

This reminds me of something from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, which I read ages ago. Valentine Michael Smith was an incredibly good kisser, and the reason was because he threw himself utterly into his kissing, so that he was doing that completely and nothing else. I was maybe 13 or 14 when I read the book, so its not that surprising that I remember this tidbit. But it's the same idea.

And, of course, its what we are striving for in asana practice. The challenge here is to try to bring the same sort of awareness to other tasks we do that we learn to bring to the asanas. It's a very interesting idea.