The Powder of Now

When exploring metaphorical landscapes with clients, quite often they are the most amazingly connective and intuitive places and visions.
Part of the exploration of the film “Inception” was in this area and how that argument interfaced with the dreams of some of the characters. It is, indeed, a collection of other worlds – far more real and yet far more bizarre, than can ever be conjured up in our minds by science fiction.

This brings me to a recent session with a client, to whom I was explaining the thinking behind the “Quality of Pleasure”- a chapter from “Mind How You Go – Steps to enhance your life’s journey”.

The Quality of Pleasure - LINK HERE

The calibration of not just the type of pleasure we might get from a particular action or indulgence, but also the amount of pleasure it might deliver for us, is a way we can maximise things we might love doing (for all the right reasons of course).

Now this lady expressed a real interest in the nature of pleasure and how to really engage with it - so I mentioned to her, at this stage, the Japanese Tea Making Ceremony or Chado. I talked about the various meanings of the elements of the ritual, and the total in-the-moment absorption of the Maker with the tasks involved.

Curiously enough, it’s also a line of discussion I like to train clients onto, especially if they have difficulty in engaging and coupling with the present – the Now. These are folk like the ‘I want my life back as it was’ people, or the ‘I’ll be happy when’ people – and this lady certainly subscribed to those archetypes in both her language and perceptions.
It didn’t take her long to make the connection I was alluding to either – and I knew things had begun to resonate with her in a rather intriguing and, at the same time, amusing way.

“One of my favourite cooking tasks is making custard,” she said. “The milk goes in the pan and starts to heat as I mix together the custard powder, sugar and cold milk. The thing is – I know I can’t walk away from it or do anything else at the same time. You have to stay right with it from start to finish. It’s a completely ‘in the now’ task from which, with attentive application rather than expertise, comes a perfect custard.”
I’m sat there nodding as I listen to her, remembering all the times I’ve had milk boil over, or not blended the ingredients properly and got a lumpy result, or added the milk too soon and not had it thicken properly. Total absorption is the order of the day unless you want to be left with the messy aftermath in the pan or that awful smell of scalded milk!

And then our conversation crumbled into puns, humour and just a hint of wackiness.

“So in terms of The Now of making custard you might call yourself an expert,” I said.
“I am,” she replied, smiling. “You could say I am the custody sergeant!”
“Zen and the art of making custard,” I responded, “can bring the power of Now into the everyday kitchen.”
“Let’s call it The Powder of Now,” she concluded.