Basic Instructions
For this activity, find a few moments to pause and observe some everyday experience. This could be an experience with and object, an activity, a person, etc. Practice beginner’s mind by writing down at least two novel observations (things you’ve never noticed) about that experience.
Do this at three different times over the course of a week. Then, reflect on the activity as a whole.
Inspiration
These are a few of my favorite quotes.
Goethe
Every object well-contemplated opens a new organ of perception in us.
Erich Fromm
This is an example of awakeness, known to everybody: We have seen the face of a person many times, he may be a relative, a friend, and acquaintance, a companion at work. One day, for reasons that we often do not understand, we suddenly see his face in a completely new manner. It is as if it has assumed a new dimension. It has come fully alive to us.1
Simone Weil
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
Footnotes
-
From The Art of Living by Erich Fromm ↩