tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696040882805187724.post3512186312772760247..comments2023-07-27T21:47:54.738+12:00Comments on Be Quiet for a Change: A Matter of StyleKelvin Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682322819567886400noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696040882805187724.post-61309061265389084202011-06-24T14:25:23.141+12:002011-06-24T14:25:23.141+12:00Indeed being in water is a good metaphor. Like all...Indeed being in water is a good metaphor. Like all metaphors however, it has its limits, and in this case, it is the fact that even when well intentioned and doing our best it is easy to "fall out of the water"; that is, instead of meditation, we find ourselves woolgathering, imagining, daydreaming, sleeping, reliving an old hurt or triumph, planning, or losing ourselves in some reverie or other. The need for a method is the need to keep ourselves immersed. It doesn't matter greatly in the long run what that method is, but if we wish to stay in the water for longer and longer periods; if after being in the water for a while we notice the water has all manner of marvellous qualities and want to experience/learn about/take advantage of those qualities, then we will need a method. I suppose to extend the metaphor, if after a while in the water we have a wish to swim, we will need to learn some stroke or other. Choose whatever stroke you like,and you'll get along fine. But don't for goodness sake try to combine them.Kelvin Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682322819567886400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8696040882805187724.post-36583021202747824542011-06-23T17:52:29.191+12:002011-06-23T17:52:29.191+12:00I've been thinking about this since reading it...I've been thinking about this since reading it and there's something about the "up the mountain" metaphor that disconcerts me. So I've been thinking about prayer/meditation and about my own experience of different seasons inviting different "methods" and my current experience of debilitating illness. I haven't got any particular insight or even much clarity but I'm thinking about a different metaphor. If meditation is like immersion in a body of water, the point is to be in the water. It doesn't matter if you came in down some steps, or executed the most beautiful dive or if someone else had to lift you in... the point is to be in the water. Yep, you still have to get in (is staying on the side looking the equivalent to thrashing round in the underbrush - I'm not sure). And there is not the same sense of "progress" as going up a mountain. But we know that water can change the shape even of rock in its slow and steady way...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com