In a recent post I discussed how looking at forests and fractals evokes a sense of awe.   The research studies found that natural fractal structures, like trees, and man-made fractals, like certain art, stimulates awe, altruism. It might be that looking at these structures that repeat patterns across very large and small scales evokes a sense of infinite. The abundance of the infinite might even support altruism, since giving any amount of the infinite still leaves one with the infinite.  When I see the same rich patterns in larger and larger (or smaller and smaller) scales, I feel a sense of infinity.  I have the same feeling when I participate in Thich Naht Hanh’s meditations on a tangerine. When we eat a tangerine, Thich explains, we can be aware of the sun, soil and people that nourished the tangerine. When we peel the tangerine, we can find a seeming infinity of sensations, smell and sight, if we peel mindfully. Eating the tangerine, slowly, we can find an infinity of sensations in our mouth as well as tastes. In these practices, I feel awareness of the very large and the very small, and feel a wonderful sense of abundance. It struck me that those enjoying coloring mandalas might feel something like this.

Mindfulness meditation gives me this rewarding feeling of abundance in the present. While, there is a [Read more…]