Just because the second one of these is coming out on day 2 of Lent doesn’t mean there will be one every day. That would be against the spirit of unbusy, and indeed the spirit of blogging. Only blog if you have something to blog about…
Today has been quite a ‘busy’ one in terms of #NOTBUSY activity. Here are two highlights.
Bowled Out
Diary management is crucial to the art of unbusyness. A meeting I should have been at a week ago was cancelled because we could not make a quorum. As it happens it only takes two but the maximum is three.
Today possible dates for the next meeting were offered by email. There was only one date the other two could do. I was also semi-free to attend in that there was nothing specific in my diary for that time, but it was earmarked for ‘preparation’. The time wise knows that if you don’t plan in time to prepare you end up not preparing and become boring and repetitive, boring and repetitive, boring and repetit.. (you get it).
Anyway I fudged my reply and it clearly came across that I was protesting my own busyness. A smart email quickly winged its way back (coped to all…) ‘Now come on Stephen, ain’t that busyness!!!!!’
I was bowled out for a duck on day 2. So… a big slice of humble pie and a new email: ‘sorry, I am not free to attend but if my diary changes I will come along’.
Mindful Ramblings
The second thing is less personal and more delightful. I happened to be in the car when ‘Ramblings’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Clare Balding was talking to Dr Kate Kirkwood. As the blurb says,
Kate attempts to lead Clare on a path of spiritual renewal by teaching her to walk silently. Silence is not a state that comes naturally to Clare but as she and Kate walk where the mood takes them, in the Herefordshire countryside just outside Haye on Wye, they discover why walking can be one of the best forms of stress relief.
If you listen you will be gently drawn into the idea of mindfulness and out of the stream of relentless rush. The programme was full of Buddhist insights and, fair play to the Buddhists, it is Buddhism which of all the religions has tried the hardest to make its spiritual wisdom accessible. At one point Dr Kirkwood says that ‘thinking is an overrated activity’. As she says, when she thinks it often the same old, same old. Me too – and perhaps you too. Yet she acknowledges that the brain is a thought-generating device and so if we want to find peace we need to relax into having thoughts and letting them just float away.
Anyway, it was a great broadcast and for me there were two tremendous consequences.
First to begin to think of NOTBUSY as Christian Mindfulness. Expect more about that in a later blog.
And second, Clare Balding retweeted my tweet about it. Thanks, Clare.
If you haven’t heard the programme, this is the link:
Or at least striving to make outward action develop from, rather than match, that mindfulness? Or, are the outward actions we make the real mindfulness and honest spirit, otherwise it is just aloofness and conjecture like you suggest?
I think this interestingly links to what you wrote about in Barefoot Disciple, where, discussing Iris Murdoch’s essay The Sovereignty Of Good, you suggest that true humility “helps us overcome the self-regarding and anxious habits of mind which shield us from reality.” You describe a process of becoming more “other-aware than self-aware” and suggest that this is a “profound spiritual struggle”. I think this is the aim of real mindfulness meditation, Christian, Buddhist, whatever; finding stillness, quiet, peace of mind is part of an active process of clearing which is always the struggle of what it means to be human and this is the only way to see what is “real”, which I believe is love and compassion. Peace is a verb, and the end point of any mindfulness exercises should always be the act of other-awareness, but we do get hijacked by our own thoughts. In being not busy, we should have this in mind (excuse the pun); not just be satisfied that we avoided tweeting, texting or whatever. Reading through various not busy tweets is quite interesting because you can see people genuinely struggling with the process of habits and I hope as they practise more the tweeting reflects more of this profound struggle. It will be interesting to read more about your view of Christian mindfulness and I hope the process and discussion of being not busy continues way beyond Lent.
Thanks for making the connection with Barefoot Disciple and helping me see how this develops from that – as it were. I will reflect more on the idea that ‘not busy’ is an active process of clearing.
I share 100% the hopes expressed towards the end of your comment. ‘Christian mindfulness’ is definitely something to explore further – bearing in mind the danger of branding, and thereby limiting, as pointed out by ‘M’.
Mindfulness is not a brand; it is a human process which should transcend any ideological categorisation and labelling. Our breath is not Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh…it is rhythm, pulse, God.
Fair comment. I am seeking to connect Christian spirituality and mindfulness. I can see why the phrase ‘Christian Mindfulness’, while intended as a pointer, can sound wrong and hope to come to better ways of putting it as time passes.
This part of mindfulness practice is a simple process of discovery; it is not judging something as good or bad. Meditative discovery is supported by stillness. Whatever our degree of stillness, it acts as a backdrop to highlight what is going on. It doesn’t take much stillness to notice a racing, agitated mind. Discovery means becoming familiar with what a racing mind is like instead of being critical of it. What is the mind itself like, and what is its effect on the body? What emotions are present? What thoughts and beliefs?
The knowing aspect of mindfulness is deliberate and conscious. When you know something this way, not only do you know it, but also a presence of mind grows in which you clearly know that you know. It is like being one of two calm people in an unruly crowd. Neither of you gets caught up in the crowd’s agitation, and a spark of recognition, maybe even a smile, passes between you as you share knowing that both of you are not caught.
Thank you. Helpfully expressed. I like the two calm people in agitated crowd image. But is there not also a point to be made about the precariousness, or vulnerability, of our mindfulness?
I agree, the precariousness is often the stuff we call real life, like the woman who tweeted about being thrown a googly which got in the way of not being busy. How you look at that “googly” is the key point – that is where you practise mindfulness, not in isolation during 20 minutes quiet time. This is where true enriching mindfulness is most effective surely? Also is it always possible to be super mindful? Is this what is part of spiritual struggle, making both the internal reflection and outward action match?