How do we silence our minds and enter the peace that is within?
Today I chanced upon an artist, Marina Abramović.
She is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist using art to explore the relationship between the performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.
Recently she collab with Wetransfer on The Abramović Method.
Before I know it, I went into a meditative state just watching her doing her art.
Drinking water, walking slowly, counting rice, staring into the windows of our soul.
Meaningless, mindless things. So what is the purpose?
To be in the present moment.
She was on point when she was explaining the counting rice exercise.
You mix black lentils into white rice. Make a decision of how much rice you will count and whether you will count just the white/black / both.
For the first 5mins, you may be excited and enthusiastic. It's something new that you haven't done before. It's fun. After 15-20mins you start to feel pointless. Frustrated about the drudgery of it and start to feel angry and frustrated. This is the most important moment. You must get past that point and make the decision to stick to your promise to complete the whole exercise. If you give up in frustration now, you will have the same attitude when you face life. Once past, you shall find the tranquility where time stops and moment in the now just unfolds by itself. The destination no longer matters but the here and now.
In a way, counting rice, like many other mundane tasks we do daily, is life itself. What it means to live a full life? What does it mean to have a life? It can't be found through definition nor destination. You have to experience it and its true meaning shall unfold upon you.
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