Reading for Insight on Paper or on Screen. Not to numb out on….

We often read for information. Information rarely gets passed thought, rarely passes through the brain cells. A vast amount of information never gets remembered and serves no purpose.

We read in the armchair, on public transport, sitting, standing and curled up in bed. We flip through pages. We scroll down the screen. Reading serves to occupy the mind.

Such an occupied mind cannot see deeper than that.

Reading for insight requires a different approach. Mindfulness, single pointed concentrated, a posture which is straight and upright or horizontal  contribute to the fullness of presence when reading.

Reading for insight usually requires a slower speed of reading than reading for information, distraction or entertainment. We read fiction and non-fiction to squeeze out the significance of what we read.

Our concentration on the words enables a receptivity to insights and truths found in the text. Insights and truths nourish the mind, heart and being. We develop through such insights.

Rather than underline important sentences, we can place a small pencil point in the white space at the end of the line.  We can then return to those pencil marks and read through again. This absorption into specific passages will contribute further to our understanding.

A poem, a novel, a textbook, a spiritual/religious book and various written statements and commentaries can enhance our lives. We can understand what matters at a deeper level.

Reading for insight has the potential to change our lives.

Paintings

The same principle applies to the visual arts.

For example, we can visit an art gallery and appreciate hundreds of paintings by some of the world’s great artists.

We can also sit down on a seat in front of a painting and direct our mindfulness and single pointed concentration onto to single canvas. We make the painting our meditation. The painting might reveal its secrets. We might discover much about the core themes in the painting and simultaneously find out more about ourselves and life, itself.

Meditation on a single painting can enrich our lives. The same principle applies to a plant at home. We meditate on a plant at home. We can feel the intimacy of our lives with nature and that a single plant represents the natural world.

We can look wholeheartedly at a television programme or Youtube sitting tall on the sofa or armchair with unwavering interest and focus. The programme then has the potential to expand our awareness, open our heart and bring about a worthwhile response after the programme has concluded.

Yes, there is a high percentage of superficial presentation on television that serves as a diversion from living in the real world. Hours can be spent in a substitute reality of the television screen.

We would come to more insights and realise more truths by applying mindfulness and concentration to the black screen with the television switched off.

The same principle applies to the mobile phone. Endless checking of Facebook pages, Instagram, texts and mobile games weakens the capacity of the mind to sustain mindfulness, single concentration and insight.

Then we wonder why we have become so mentally tired. The daily addiction to the screen fragments the power of the mind to focus and reduces our capacity to handle events in the real world.

Use your eyes and ears for insight not to numb your mind.

Our heart and mind is the only instrument we have to know ourselves, know others and know reality.

Don’t forget!