ContactJuggling.org

So I was CJing with my eyes closed today.....
Just doing some wipers/butterflies with both hands and I had a very Zen/transcendental like feeling.
I really enjoyed feeling the contact and NOT relying on my eyes. I KNOW that doing this blind will help my overall performance and experience. I like internalizing the experience. I'm really excited and am gonna shut up now before I say anything really stupid, but I just want to know how many more of you understand what I'm talking about and can I expect to experience more of this?

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Remember: No matter where you go. There you are.
And if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

Contact Juggling becomes Meditation.

We loves it.

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Z = Z^2 + C
Do it slowlier, Okido?
Installer of Warp Drive Technology. Sending out Ripples and making Waves.
Chin high, chest puffed, we step right to it. The choice is; there is no choice but to pursue it.

Yes, it only gets better. Flow-state= balance of skill and challenge (fullfill maslow's pyramid of self-actualization to make it better/easier).

Oh yeah, from a biological standpoint the nerve impulses to your brain are much faster from skin contact than they are from visual sense input.

If you really want to go for the Buddhist meditative experience, try Vipassana with your ball: focus only on the single point of contact where the ball meets your skin. Whenever you catch your mind wandering, judging, planning, rehearsing, whatever... just gently let those thoughts go and bring focus back to that single point. It's hard work at first but gradually the mind gets easier to quieten down. See if you can reach the fourth jhana.

Wait a minute, that sounds suspiciously like one of the bits in that multiball book. Which also had me rolling balls around with my eyes closed, which was admittedly really nice and addictive.

Ironical. Between the time I posted this and now. I was in the front yard listening to some old Pink Floyd in my modified headphones and doing basically that. I was resting a 4" acrylic on top of my arm just behind the wrist and simply trying to become still and let it rest there.
Where is a good place to learn more about this aspect of contact juggling 'cause I am REALLY developing OCCJD at light speed and that is way to slow.

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Remember: No matter where you go. There you are.
And if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

Nice way to train. I unfortunately have never been able to maintain the discipline to do the eyes closed thing for long, much less often enough to get a benefit from it. I really need to get with it.

Keep it up!
Just don't get caught up in trying to define quality.

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The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls

I wasnt ever able to do that technique easily either until I read a Buddhist meditation method that said to close your eyes, clear your mind and try to focus on just finding the origin of a single sound, as soon as you divert thought to something else, start over --

So if you are following the sound of water trickling down the rocks in a fountain display, you start at the bubbling of the water landing in the pool, trace it back up to trickling over the rocks, back up to the sound of it bubbling up at the top, down through the tube, into the air pump--- etc...

Actually now that I'm on this train of thought, thats a completely different meditation method, as I just remembered reading about a technique of focusing on a single point of contact with something, iirc it had to do with trying to feel/become one with the energy of a rock resting in the palm. ....

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You are not controlling the flow, and you are not lost in it. You are the flow.

Zazen does not need a ball. The ball is you. Just as everything is you. Just the breath. That is all.

In my experience, multiball is a great way to experience/learn more about the meditative aspects of cj. I've found that super slow and focused isolation leads to a similar (though inherently different) meditative state.

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It's not true contact unless you're naked.

Been practicing basic meditation techniques for a while now actually and that's about the best summary there is. I really love incorporating some cj'ing because it's all about the present moment. And that's kind of what contact is right? just living in the present moment with a ball?

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"Contact Juggling is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal Bliss and supreme joy in the end."
- Swami Sivananda*

*Some liabilities may have been taken in the preparation of this quotation.

A simple 2 ball separated palmspin is one of the most relaxing things in the world for me. I will often take out 2-4 acrylics if I need to do some serious thinking. I can definitely relate to the zen like state that one achieves when you close your eyes and just let the spheres consume you mind and push everything else out.

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O right, I guess winter is here now.

http://www.sphereocity.com/

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Never underestimate the complexity of buttered toast

This afternoon was the first day I really got the top of the head balance, especially as you can't even see the ball while you are doing it, closing your eyes is an excellent tactic, I suppose it even probably makes it easier to do. Very relaxing standing in the shade in my backyard.