Related Posts:

POSTED BY wayne on Nov 14 under News 'n Views

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

On needing a reminder

A couple of days ago, I wrote 10 suggestions for Zen Living. This was one of the points:

7. pay attention

Be Here Now. It’s the only way to actually have a life. Mooning over the past or living in the future "…then I’ll be happy…" is a sure fire way to get into trouble. You snooze, you lose.

Experiment: In Zen monasteries, a bell is rung at irregular intervals. The monks stop, and contemplate their level of ‘presence’ when the bell rang. Find a way to do the same - perhaps set a timer, and see where your attention was when it goes off.

Zen living: Pay attention. As you find yourself drifting off into thoughts and plans, plots and dreams, have a breath and bring yourself back to now. Interesting, real stuff is happening, and can only be appreciated by bringing yourself into the This Endless Moment. And what does it say about you if your fantasy life is more chargy and fun than your ‘real life?’

The whole ‘pay attention’ thing caused me to think. I decided to have a programmer create a little program that runs on your computer, in the background, and randomly pops up a window with a reminder to pay attention. It also sounds chimes (from our Buddha Hall no less!!) You can download it for free, unzip it, and click ’setup.exe.’ It will then run as you set it to.

First,

Download Zen Timer here (right click and save)

Then, go to the instruction page for step-by-step installation directions with pictures!