Practice - Expanding Awareness Through Habitual Rituals
A practice is the embodiment of an approach to a concept. This can support us in bringing about desired state of mind. When we repeat the exercise of opening our senses to what is, we move closer to living in a continually open state. We build a habit. One we expanded awareness is our default way of being in the world. p43-44
To support our practice, we might set up a daily schedule, where we engage in particular rituals at specific times every day or week. The gestures be performed don't need to be grand. Small rituals can make a big difference. We can decide to take three slow, deep breaths upon awakening each morning. This simple act considered course to start each day still, centered, and in the moment. p44
The purpose of such exercises is not necessarily in the doing, just as the goal of meditation isn't in the meditating. The purpose is to evolve the way we see the world when we're not engaged in these acts. We are building the musculature of our psyche to more acutely tune in. This is so much of what the work is about. p45
Awareness needs constant refreshing. If it becomes a habit, even a good habit, it will need to be reinvented again and again. Until one day, you notice that you are always in the practice of awareness, at all times, in all places, living your life in a state of constant openness to receiving. p45
Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you're not.
It makes no sense to say you're not good at it.
It's like saying "I'm not good at being a monk"
You are either living as a monk or you're not.
We tend to think of the artist's work as the
output.
The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world. p47