Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tuesday Challenge - beyond concepts

A short challenge today - I'm over at the Burrowers going on about the Northern Gateway Pipe-line controversy. Do visit...

This is a two-part exercise. The first is to sit quietly and calm your mind. When it is calmed down a bit from all its discurviness, I want you to listen. As you listen you will hear noises, for instance when I do that right now I can hear the sound of Gwen dusting off her mocs, taking out papers, my sweet patootie coughing and moving towards his den, the snow falling (nah, I can't hear that) but as I do it - I start stories - why is Gwen dusting off slippers when by their very nature they are for keeping the dust off her socks? Papers? Isn't she going to write on her computer - doesn't SP have any work outside today? And so forth. In this exercise, let go of the meaning of the sounds, try and hear them without thinking about what created them. If you'd rather do this, soften your gaze and see the forms of what is in front of you without attributing their purpose to them, as if you just landed on the planet - oh black thing, rectangular, soft grey thing through shiny clear surface, etc...

2nd part - take this to your work. Describe something by its seeable reality or hearable reality - without letting us know what it is. This is hard. We want to tell a story with every sense we experience. Keep trying until you are satisfied - then send it off to me if you like!
Here's a photo I took using the same method. It's called a Miksang shot: whoops, can't do that because of my computer woes - maybe later today I will...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jan - What an effective exercise for adding some depth to writing, simply by listening. I like it! And what a great way to keep focused on showing, not telling...

Kittie Howard said...

Jan hit the nail on the head. What a great exercise, listening - so simple, so effective. Thanks for sharing!

Carol Kilgore said...

Great exercises to reinforce those other senses. Thanks.