Day Seventy-four

My perception of the world around me and of the stone is flawed by my presumption of its independence. I desire it to be a certain way, I dislike it, or pay little attention to it. Sometimes, the harder I try to 'just feel' it, the more entangled I get in many thoughts and feelings.

In any of these cases, I 'pick up' not just the stone but a delusion of myself as separate from it. It feels like I cannot see without this artificial barrier, but that is just doubt. The form is there and my skin contacts it. Immediately I have a story, not so much about the stone, but about myself. They are interwoven.

I haved a perception of the mind in the same way as thinking about those things and 'trying' to get peaceful, more aware. These are just perceptions and feelings that lead to a delusion of the way things are. With what is the way things are peceived? Simply with the mind of unwrapping, of letting go. I could say that to be spiritually healthy in this exercise, I need the stone to be calm, but there is no stone there, no exercise, no spirit.