Today I tried adding some new variations to a classic: railing balancing. The new elements were rain and night. I have done some balancing after dark, but always avoid it in the wet. I found a rail about 40 feet long by my elementary school. The first trip down in back in my vibrams went fine, but after about 4 steps in my trainers I nearly racked myself.
What I was noticing most about my self when trying to do this was that my mind would not stay with the action. I do this a lot, think of the future when I am in the moment. I was thinking mostly about telling people about this experience in the future. However, I was missing the experience because I was thinking about telling these people about the experience. Or I was thinking about writing this blog entry and the crafty ways I would compare balancing on the rail to balancing in the moment.
The best way I found to stay with the moment was actually by reflecting on rail walking. When walking on a rail you don’t actually “walk,” you transition from balancing on the left foot to balancing on the right. If you try to balance on two feet at once you cannot counter the weight of the upper body. In the same way if I let my mind wander, but still keep it in the moment it helped. I would focus on more than one thing all happening around and within me, my breath, the rail ahead of me, the sounds of traffic and rain. Then I would transition not moving from foot to foot, but moving from moment to moment. Finding new things to keep me there, the shadow I made as I wiggled trying to stay up, the feeling of the metal below my foot, my breath. In all meditation they say to focus on the breath and I found this very helpful.
I have not have mastered Zen meditation, being totally absorbed in the moment. But I took my first step.
