[Don Salmon]

Thanks Lucy.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this somewhere else but if you missed it, you might be interested (speaking of letting go of hope)

Loch Kelly did a fun little informal experiment with a group of 80 people. He taught the zen version of that breath counting exercise (count to 10; if you get lost at any point, go back to 1 and start over – counting only on the exhale)

He divided the people into 2 groups, 40 each.

For group 1, he just gave the same basic instructions as above.

For group 2, he gave one modification – DON’T “try” to focus on the breath or the counting. let your awareness be completely open, taking in the full range of experience. Let the breath simply be presented as an anchor to keep the mind from wandering too far afield, and let the counting “emerge” spontaneously.

The result? After 10 minutes (keep in mind, nobody in the group had done this practice before)

In Group 1, there wasn’t one person among the 40 who was able to count all the way to 10 even once.

in Group 2, every one of the 40 group members kept track of the count, effortless, without losing count even once.