The Drop In
The Magic Trick of Making the World Disappear
Recently, Joe and I found ourselves in Times Square, my least favorite part of the city. Advertisements five stories tall demand attention. News tickers slink around buildings and are impossible to ignore. On this Sunday morning, a Christian rock band with two bass guitars had set up on the Southeast corner. A woman played the mixing board like an organ and a man sang off-key. His voice mingled with traffic, which mingled with the exhaust. It was an assault on my senses. I could feel my muscles tensing and my mood shifting.
Joe suggested we try doing a “drop-in”. Dropping in is something that we began practicing a few years ago and has been a go-to move throughout the pandemic. It involves standing (or sitting) still, bringing awareness to the breath, and noticing the experience of being in a body until the world disappears. This micro-meditation can be done solo or with a partner or, my favorite, on zoom before a meeting begins. When I drop-in, I imagine that I am on an elevator going down into the center of the earth. Occasionally, I experience a distinct state change, as though the elevator has landed in a pool of water. It reminds me of the tingling sensation I get just as I am about to fall asleep. The secret is to stay in the moment long enough for the body and brain to settle.
We stepped back from the crowd and found a place where the sun was streaming between buildings. We leaned into each other and closed our eyes. The cacophony of the city muted into a blanket of sound. I watched my thoughts scroll by like giant news tickers without trying to read them. I felt my body relaxing. But, damn, the preacher kept breaking in. “Who among us is feeling the call to be saved?” he asked the entirety of Times Square. I bobbed to the surface and saw a small crowd gathering around him. A man who looked to be in his late 20s, wearing a baseball cap, whispered something to the woman he was with and stepped forward. I closed my eyes and tried to make his voice my soundtrack as I descended back into a pool of nothingness.
It worked. I lingered in this liminal space for a few moments and when I opened my eyes, I felt different. The sun was brighter and, in my newfound calm, I felt more tender toward the chaos of humanity around me.
I sent a little love to the man in the baseball cap who was now standing face-to-face with the preacher. The crowd had opened around them and I had a clear line of sight. The man bowed his head. I wondered what burden could be so heavy to have him seek comfort from a stranger in the midst of strangers. Tears rolled freely down his cheeks. The woman—was it his girlfriend?—reached out and touched his back. Someone began to clap and others joined in.
This theater of the city rivaled anything that was playing in the theaters nearby. By dropping into this moment that I had been trying to escape this moment, I accessed the sublime.
It made me think about how many opportunities for pleasure are happening at every moment—at the check-out line, on the phone with customer service, in the back of the school bus, and definitely on 42nd Street. Pleasure is not a matter of creating more moments of human connection but of slowing down to notice the ones that are happening all around us.
FROM THE INSTITUTE OF PLEASURE STUDIES
Humans have been trying to describe the “drop-in” for Millenium. Some call it “the field” or oneness. Buddhists call it “suchness.” When coupled with action, the drop-in is called flow state or the zone. Most commonly, it is called consciousness, an awareness of self. Like everything, the more we practice, the more we can master the art of the drop-in.
For years, I have been meaning to get a steady meditation practice going. After fits and starts, I landed on something that works. Every morning at 7 AM EST, Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation hosts a morning zoom call with thousands of people around the world. He begins with a five-minute rap on a recent discovery about the brain, the gut biome, human or animal behavior (Today it was about the value of apologizing before an apology is needed) and then we meditate in silence for 20 minutes. He concludes with a quote or a poem and we all go on our way. It is re-broadcast on the hour throughout the day. Join me.
Insight Timer is a beautiful app for meditating solo or in community. You can create your timer and follow a number of meditation leaders. I recommend Dawson Church and these stress-reducing meditations.
THE LEXICON OF PLEASURE
The English language has a lexicon of about 170,000 words. Shakespeare is credited with inventing 1700 of them. It is time for some new language to describe different states of pleasure. The Lexicon of Pleasure is a new project from TPR. Help us expand our definitions of pleasure by sharing your responses to a new question each week.
Q: How do you describe the feeling of being “dropped in”? When have you experienced a good drop-in?
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