If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you will know that I practice a few contemplative practices, like Zen Archery, the art of calligraphy, contemplative photography, and certainly meditation.
As much as I am run off my feet as an entrepreneur, I also balance my incredibly busy life with a good doses of such contemplative practices.
And I start every day with an hour or more of meditation, even on the road.
I find that it helps many things, but especially it helps keep my sense perceptions open and fresh. Renowned meditation master and artist Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche put it like this in True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art (page 28):
“In the experience of awareness, you do not just get hold of one chunk of mindfulness and stick with it, but you experience the mindfulness and its shadow, the environment around it. There is a tremendous appreciation of life and of how to conduct one’s life. So awareness practice is not just formal sitting practice or meditation-in-action alone. It is a unique training practice in how to behave as an inspired human being, or an inspired sentient being. That is what is meant by being an artist.”
