Mindfulness and Circuits

Since the New Year, two serendipitous irresolutions have been bringing me joy and revitalization. These happenstance gifts came at just the right time, finding me before I could find them.

First, a friend brought back a set of guided mindfulness meditation CDs by Jon Kabat-Zinn from the States and shared them with me. More accurately, it is a 4-CD set of audio guided mindfulness exercises, including "Body Scan Meditation," "Mindfulness Yoga 1," "Sitting Meditation," and "Mindfulness Yoga 2." I just finished up the fourth CD (Mindfulness Yoga 2), and it's been a pleasure to go through the CDs one by one, trying each of the different techniques. The approach is gentle, and Zinns voice is warm and soothing (to the point of somnolence...I've gotten drowsy and almost nodded off during 2 of the 4 sessions.) Though I've got a long way to go with incorporating mindfulness into my daily life, I really like this simple and user-friendly format. As my jazz teacher used to say in high school, the more you learn about something the more you realize you don't know. In that regard, I've learned that I mostly seek mindlessness by habit. But I have also learned that it's possible to be conscious of which behaviors encourage mindlessness and which allow you to fully embrace the present moment. Even after just four sessions, I notice myself becoming more aware of moments in my daily routine that I would previously have ignored. Whereas I used to consider mindfulness a dull chore, I've found some joy in watching my thoughts or my body or tuning into the sky for a few moments. So I'm slowly discovering that mindfulness can be fun.

The second chance occurrence was an encounter with a friend of a friend who is traveling around the world studying electronic music and art. Her blog is here: http://korilisa.wordpress.com/ Can't really begin to describe how "cool" her work is, except that I'm filled with admiration (and the slightest bit of envy ;) for her. She's also interested in educating people and sharing what she knows in a way that's both generous and patient. So it was through this encounter that I built my first electronic instrument (with substantial help and instruction from her). It's a basic oscillator with standard components. Yesterday, I embarked on my second adventure by going and getting some more parts and then copying this how-to video: http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_3167_build-synthesizer.html. Though I've been interested in pursuing this sort of project for a long time, I've never gotten anything off the ground. Then, with a soldering iron thrust into my hands and all the bits and pieces laid out before my eyes, how could I say no? It just happened, and now I find myself getting excited about potentiometers and capacitors, words that I thought were just techno-babel for sci-fi movies a couple weeks ago.

Though both of these life-projects are in their nascent stages, I hope they will continue to bear fruit well into the future. They go to show that a little giving, a small random act of kindness, can (potentially) go a long way.

Finally, I can't help but drawing a connection between the two, even if I'm grasping at straws. The brain (which one might safely call "the mind") is itself a set of enormously complex circuits. In comparison, the circuits that I'm fiddling with on my newly purchased bread board are so simple as to be totally negligible. But the connection is that, just like a series of simple circuits or simple wave-forms that are added together to make complex circuits and complex wave-forms for music, the brain's circuits can be rewired and integrated to form new cognitive patterns. I'm kind of grossly delighted by the idea of soldering the self, unhinging one part of the mind and reconnecting it to another. This is much easier said than done, and takes a lot of effort, conscious planning and especially mindfulness to execute. But there is a kind of joy in looking at one's life as a circuit experiment, taking each isolated module and forging new connections. Isn't that what meaning is all about? For example, if I take my morning shower and merge it with singing, I might create an opera in my bathtub. Or if I connect my beers with books, (http://www.beersforbooks.org), or video games with education, I might be able to put a new spin on my so-called "vices." To me, this is the excitement of the 21st century. The possibility of creating an infinite number of new networks to bring fresh and creative solutions to human problems. The remixing and reconnecting of networks is, hopefully, still in its infancy. Just as I've managed to mix (perhaps haphazardly) circuits and mindfulness in this post, so too can any number of different ideas be re-bundled to provoke innovation and creativity.

As acknowledged above, there is a long way to go, and I'm certainly getting ahead of myself. The results of this kind of experimentation could also have devastating consequences (think of the hippies!), which underscores the need for a contemplative process to guide powerful tools and insights. For now, let me just say thanks to those who have helped make my January meaningful. Love to you all, and I hope you're enjoying the present and nurturing the future.