Try an awareness bath

Aug 28, 2010, 12.00am IST
MARGUERITE THEOPHIL.

An old, uneducated woman approached the Buddha, wanting to meditate, saying that she was coming to it so late in life; she might not really be able to learn how.

He gently advised her, as she drew water from the well each day, to remain mindful and aware of every single movement of her hands, knowing that if she did so she would soon find herself in that state of alert and spacious calm that is meditation.

After several people had claimed that meditative awareness was hard enough to practise on the meditation cushion, to suggest that we bring it to the everyday is perhaps one of those nice sounding but ridiculously impossible things. I suggested what I thought was a simple mid-session project on taking an 'awareness bath'.


A woman leapt up, furious. Tired after a rough week at the office, she yelled at me about all the 'rubbish' i was talking. She had to knead, roll out and cook about 30 chapattis every single evening soon after getting home from work. Completely exhausted by dinner-time, she barely soaped all over in the shower before collapsing on her bed. She even added that maybe it was only 'jobless' people like me who could afford this silly luxury!

My first instinct was to argue with her; to convince her... But thankfully I remained aware – and shut up and went inwards. To my surprise, I got in touch with the sensory pleasures of making chapattis.

Without addressing her directly, i acted out a slow, invisible chapatti-making routine, all the time talking aloud of how my senses responded as i went along – measuring out the ingredients, the feel and colours of the deep red measuring bowl and flat silvery shiny thali that reflected my hands and movements. Really feeling the dry flour on my hands, pouring in cool, clear water, then the sticky-clingy coming together of the dough, the rhythm of kneading, breathing and the alchemy of the transformed 'just right' feel of the dough, all the time noticing the aromas changing constantly in the process. Then the rolling and flattening of individual chapattis, the feel of the weight of the rolling pin, sometimes the perfect round ones that showed up, the amazing smell of the fresh roasted ones, how they puffed pleasingly at the end, then slowly flattened down...maybe a few drops of aromatic ghee dribbled on each.

It took just a few minutes, and there was total silence. In fact, I recall the session for that day ended right there.

The next Saturday the same woman said smilingly that chapatti-time was now her stress management time. Not just that – it relaxed her enough to enjoy a really 'aware' bathing time.

Another called me last week – full three years after the sessions – telling me that over the years this has become her 'holy time' of the day. She willingly takes longer over it than before, and everyone, including her mother-in-law, agrees no one makes chapattis that look and taste as good as the ones she makes.

We can bring meditative awareness to washing dishes, eating, writing, walking, relating. We can let go of our usual excuses of 'no time' or 'wrong place'. Everyday things and actions can offer us unusual moments of holiness and blessedness.

weave@vsnl.net