Awareness in modern life

So we were talking about ki no sen the other day in Shorinji Kempo and from what I can grasp of this it's a bit like using your common sense or keeping your wits about you (OK, probably a bit deeper than that but let's work with 'awareness' for the time being!).

And then I watched this following video on YouTube... It made me think how easily we get distracted by all our modern accoutrements...how easily we can focus so much on our mobile phone or ipod or whatever and forget about the real life around us!

And then I had an even scarier thought...

Check out this slightly scary/disturbing video (not for young kids) but thought provoking film then see what I realised after I'd watched it!

And so to the rub.... I mean nobody would do that would they!? Let some bloke into their house cos he *looks* like he's going to check the meter...Except I did! Only the other day...

This guy turns up at the door with clipboard, badge and the like and says to me, "I'd like to talk to you about the gas supply" and I, without waiting because I was busy working at the time when he interrupted me, said, "Oh, you want to read the meter? Come in, here it is". Before I knew it he was sat down at the dining table trying to sell me something. I kicked him out as soon as I realised and was a bit miffed at his sales technique but you can't blame them too much I suppose. But I was surprised that I'd been 'had' that easily because my mind was clouded with the project I was doing when I was interrupted!

It's good to have a gap or a pause between moments in our day. Sensei DD made a very good point during kihon the other day: try and ready ourselves between techniques. Very often during an intense and rapid counting one texchnique can very often blend into another. Instead of being techniques: "ichi", "ni", "san", ... they become one long technique, "ichinisan...". It's good to ready oneself between the different techniques, making them separate.

Doing this makes you less likely to be open to nasty surprises...