Meditation Articles Series

I have been introduced to Sudoku.  Now this is a game I would never have imagined I would have any interest in.  For a start, it’s a game of logic. Maths, algebra, and Latin were never my best subjects at college.  With my friend’s guidance I started at Level 1 the other day.  He’s a good teacher because I seemed to get the drift of the game and how to follow the patterns to work out the missing numbers.  When left by myself to do the next puzzle, I rushed in with great confidence only to find near the end of the game I had doubled one of the numbers in the box.  I had to begin all over.  My nine boxes became so scribbled out there was barely enough room to put in a new number.  Well, finally I got it finished.

I noticed how heated my head became.  A sort of vague headache was pulling my eyebrows together.  My poor brain was firing electrical charges that were ricocheting off neurons that had been abandoned for decades!  Then I had this insight that back when I did my first Vipassana meditation course, the fourth day was no different.  The sheer concentration of sensating the body left me, not in tingling bliss but in absolute overwhelm.  I did persist.  Years later I realize how meditation has helped me so much with focus and concentration. 

Yes, Sudoku is not what I normally gravitate toward.  But I am enjoying this game.  Perhaps if I had not carried on my meditation practice I would never have developed the concentration to persist in any logical pursuit.