Member-only story

A Quiet Mind

eric mccarty
2 min readApr 7, 2022

--

A Quiet Mind — Prose Poem — Headless Now — Moca McCarty Photo

A quiet mind:

these quiet moments lead to life outside the meditation bench and sacred space of my creation — there’s an extended silence now, deep, internal, and one that guides and benefits in ways not imagined long before. I’m often asked of this, what I’ve gained from my twice daily sittings, some often long periods of simply allowing myself the thinking of a mantra until it drops all together to a quiet mind. I wish I had an easy answer to this, a concise reply that would satisfy the question. But honestly I don’t have one, not really, at least not a list that actually answers why I wake so early and welcome the morning with quietness and ease, and then later in the day I sit and match myself again to silence, a ritual of so many years, decades now, that still feels fresh and true. If asked now my answer is most often a smile and a short reply. Yes, I could name the many benefits that current research states, and how meditation has led me to a creative life of sobriety, living with more empathy and care for others — yet none of that would ever answer why my life is based on the simple, easy joy of sitting with a quiet mind.

my honest answer is for the pleasure of the sitting.

nothing more.

any benefit is an added bonus to my sitting, this isn’t about health reasons, stress reduction, or even a matter of spiritual awakening — all of which…

--

--

eric mccarty
eric mccarty

Written by eric mccarty

Writer, prose poetry, meditation teacher and lifetime student

Responses (1)