Buckets of Experience

Over the past few days I have been experimenting with a mental framework that is heavily influenced by the Buddhist concept of Emptiness The idea is that within my daily activities I create ‘buckets’ of experience. This bucket is two dimenisonal, with a beginning point and an end point. The beginning is the start of a task, and the end is the goal, or completion of the task. In between those two points there is emptiness, and room for experience to take place. The idea is very similar to timeboxing or compartmentalizing, but the added element of emptiness has been making a difference for me.

I am sitting by a river as I write this, which I arrived to by walking. I had the idea that I wanted to come to this spot by the river, which then became the end point. When I started walking, that created the beginning point. As I was walking, I brought my attention back to the goal as often as possible. It was my object of consciousness, or object of meditation. Everything else that took place in my experience I simply let happen. This was not to say that I ignored what was happening to me. I still saw what there was to see, smelled what there was to smell, and was immersed in the experience. The key idea is that I created a space for emptiness that I was able to rest in. It did not matter what happened, because there was a task, a direction.

Now I am writing this article, and have mentally created a new bucket. I do not know exactly what words I am going to use, or how long this article will be as I am simply resting in between the beginning and end point. I keep writing, because I keep bringing my attention back to the goal which is “write article”. What happens on my way to that goal I detach from, and do not try to control. I am at ease as I write this and I do not mind if I get distracted, because I know whatever happens in this bucket of experience is isolated and I will soon create a new empty bucket for new experiences to take place.

I appreciate having a small goal that I can accomplish to keep focusing on my attention on. If I were to just say “I am going for a walk”, it feels too open ended, or too empty. Even if I try to focus on the breath, which is a common object of meditation, it feels more like a failure when I become distracted. The sense of direction is nice. I enjoy resting in an empty bucket. Therefore I say “I am going to walk to this place” and then I let life happen to me.