This didn’t go into my Practice Period agreement but I’m doing it anyway
I don’t know, I guess I omitted it because I thought Ezra would think it was too goofy, what I call the Bulwer-Lytton exercise. One of the things I try when I’m caught up in negative emotions, as I frequently am, is to pause and say to myself, “It was a dark and stormy night.” This sets the stage for the high drama of my thinking mind, and I continue to describe my situation, only in the third person (and appropriating the corny Bulwer-Lytton style prose):
It was a dark and stormy night. She sank in a bog of depression, wishing she had never been born. I’m a failure, she thought, I’ve never accomplished anything, I live in a run-down neighborhood, the people at work hate me. She cast about for someone, something to blame: fate, her husband, her sister, her parents, her dogs. Yes, even the dogs, she realized with a pang. I can’t take them anywhere.
And so forth. Sometimes this is just the thing to get me the remove I need when I’m spinning down, down, down. It exposes the thoughts for what they are–just thoughts–and brings some humor to the situation.
One of the things that attracted me to a Zen practice was the way humor seemed to be a possibility. It’s nice to be reminded of another place to find something to smile about. I’ll remember this when I’m spinning down, and think of you!