I catch the train into the city once a week... Looking around... Everyone is glued to their phones....I think where did all the book people go...i pick up my phone....even though there is a book in my bag I claim not to have time to read..... 20 minutes... Flying by in seconds....where did it go! I am putting my phone down at 7am..... Next look is at 12... I hope I can do it ...
Well my 5 hrs phone free were very ambitious... Perhaps desperation.... I had a productive day thesis writing but I slip up several times... I will take it as a win... Today is another day... On the upside kids didn't say to me 'get off your phone' that's a huge win too! 🤳🏼📱
Iol... I was desperate... I love that idea I will set one up... it's all about being present around my kids... Yes I have deleted Substack off my phone too... Which has helped...
I make a point of not looking at my phone on transit - mostly I look at the view, but if it's a long commute I will take my ereader. Also, I never use my phone unless there is free wifi. I never had Facebook or Twitter on my phone. I do have Substack.
Great piece! Might I propose yet another interpretation? You probably notice and appreciate much more than you give yourself credit for, but you are expecting fireworks and magic when it’s just business as usual for you. I think some people genuinely go through life on autopilot which you clearly aren’t doing, because even the awareness of an ordinary station betrays precisely that: you have heightened awareness of your surroundings. And because you’re so proficient at going through life this way now, you no longer experience it as laborious, therefore are no longer impressed by it.
What’s more, I would suggest another layer is that you went into this with very high expectations—to see a grand cathedral and produce an article out of that. I don’t mean to be dense and fixated on the literal example you gave at all, but I think it does show how much you demanded of yourself with remarkable specificity, when the truth is that you probably appreciated it for what it was even before you set up this exercise for yourself. As in, you had already probably noticed interesting corners, columns, layout, textures. You just hadn’t registered what you were seeing OR the fact that you were seeing it as extraordinary.
In any case, I admire your ability to be present in every moment! That’s huge and remarkable in itself.
I mean you have described it brilliantly and I agree with all of that! I demanded a cathedral :-)
When I set out to do a commute, I am mainly aiming at what I would now call non-dual awareness. I always struggle to describe it, but it's kind of "just being". It's related to open awareness, but without the sense of an observer. As you might expect given there is no observer, it just switches on and off by itself. In the middle of that, I normally find myself coming up with thoughts for these articles - probably because I am wearing a high vis vest!
Only occasionally do I actually attempt to be or feel a certain way. I had a good run earlier in the year when I tried to actually enjoy the train journey home (by which I mean above ground, from Waterloo to Surbiton). I wrote that up as RIding The Choo Choo. Once achieved, I lapsed back into non-dual awareness.
In this I was definitely attempting a parallel underground - but I think maybe the difference was that unless I can actually see it, I can't evoke it? I had a view from the train window.
Anyway - as you say, I'm happy enough! Not the article I wanted to write, but as you say the present moment is the best and only point. I am thrilled to be able to settle into it - for me it's the product of endless repetition and given that - and its immense value to me - I now wonder how and when I would ever stop doing this.
I used to love how many different languages I'd hear spoken on a 45 min journey from Brixton to Hammersmith. Travelling through Victoria daily always brought new sounds. Profound because of the relative peace London enjoys, that has always been a melting pot of so many different cultures. And then those people all squished together on a stuffy tube
I catch the train into the city once a week... Looking around... Everyone is glued to their phones....I think where did all the book people go...i pick up my phone....even though there is a book in my bag I claim not to have time to read..... 20 minutes... Flying by in seconds....where did it go! I am putting my phone down at 7am..... Next look is at 12... I hope I can do it ...
Half the time I see it as normal, and half the time it flips into something really weird, kind of like a magic eye picture.
The unread book in the bag! Yes! Definitely been there
Very good luck! Please let me know how it goes.
The art of people watching....
Well my 5 hrs phone free were very ambitious... Perhaps desperation.... I had a productive day thesis writing but I slip up several times... I will take it as a win... Today is another day... On the upside kids didn't say to me 'get off your phone' that's a huge win too! 🤳🏼📱
Sorry I missed this. Yes 5 hours is a very big mouthful! But sounds pretty positive all the same?
Maybe you could have a board up in the house: X days since kid phone complaints :-)
Iol... I was desperate... I love that idea I will set one up... it's all about being present around my kids... Yes I have deleted Substack off my phone too... Which has helped...
I make a point of not looking at my phone on transit - mostly I look at the view, but if it's a long commute I will take my ereader. Also, I never use my phone unless there is free wifi. I never had Facebook or Twitter on my phone. I do have Substack.
Interesting! Do you find it easy to do that?
Me personally I have had to delete Substack from my phone. I realised quite a long time ago that I have no willpower :-)
Substack uses a fair amount of data, so unless I can use free wifi, I wait until I get home to catch-up.
Great piece! Might I propose yet another interpretation? You probably notice and appreciate much more than you give yourself credit for, but you are expecting fireworks and magic when it’s just business as usual for you. I think some people genuinely go through life on autopilot which you clearly aren’t doing, because even the awareness of an ordinary station betrays precisely that: you have heightened awareness of your surroundings. And because you’re so proficient at going through life this way now, you no longer experience it as laborious, therefore are no longer impressed by it.
What’s more, I would suggest another layer is that you went into this with very high expectations—to see a grand cathedral and produce an article out of that. I don’t mean to be dense and fixated on the literal example you gave at all, but I think it does show how much you demanded of yourself with remarkable specificity, when the truth is that you probably appreciated it for what it was even before you set up this exercise for yourself. As in, you had already probably noticed interesting corners, columns, layout, textures. You just hadn’t registered what you were seeing OR the fact that you were seeing it as extraordinary.
In any case, I admire your ability to be present in every moment! That’s huge and remarkable in itself.
I mean you have described it brilliantly and I agree with all of that! I demanded a cathedral :-)
When I set out to do a commute, I am mainly aiming at what I would now call non-dual awareness. I always struggle to describe it, but it's kind of "just being". It's related to open awareness, but without the sense of an observer. As you might expect given there is no observer, it just switches on and off by itself. In the middle of that, I normally find myself coming up with thoughts for these articles - probably because I am wearing a high vis vest!
Only occasionally do I actually attempt to be or feel a certain way. I had a good run earlier in the year when I tried to actually enjoy the train journey home (by which I mean above ground, from Waterloo to Surbiton). I wrote that up as RIding The Choo Choo. Once achieved, I lapsed back into non-dual awareness.
In this I was definitely attempting a parallel underground - but I think maybe the difference was that unless I can actually see it, I can't evoke it? I had a view from the train window.
Anyway - as you say, I'm happy enough! Not the article I wanted to write, but as you say the present moment is the best and only point. I am thrilled to be able to settle into it - for me it's the product of endless repetition and given that - and its immense value to me - I now wonder how and when I would ever stop doing this.
Anyway! thank you for the lovely comment as ever
Lovely piece. Thanks for reminding me to put my phone down every day.
I used to love how many different languages I'd hear spoken on a 45 min journey from Brixton to Hammersmith. Travelling through Victoria daily always brought new sounds. Profound because of the relative peace London enjoys, that has always been a melting pot of so many different cultures. And then those people all squished together on a stuffy tube