A photographer by trade, Peter Riedel has his own unique meditation exercise.
“It’s my meditation and my workout at the same time, says Riedel referring to
his practice of balancing rocks one on top of another until they form a small
tower, roughly a meter and a half high.
Calling to mind the Inuit inuksuk, Riedel’s designs, found along Toronto’s
Humber River and at Sunnyside Beach, are not really meant to be inuksuk,
variations thereof, an art exhibition or anything else. For him, it’s a simple
activity – balancing rocks. And meditation indeed! The 45-year-old lifts rocks
up to 23kg (with his legs, back kept straight) and carefully rolls those
heavier. Smaller rocks (or stray bricks) are added to complete his creations.
Lifting, working and sweating are not things we normally associate with
meditation today. But Riedel is actually taping into ancient wisdom about
meditation. Meditation is not only sitting in silence, which, in reality, just
does not work for many people. Meditation can occur in the midst of action, and
effectively at that. When engaged in activity, with our mind focused on the task
at hand and not flustered, this is meditation. We are here flexing our faculties
of attention and concentration, those same faculties which we endeavour to
strengthen via the silent, sitting type of meditation. With this type of active
meditation, each of us has the opportunity daily to practice meditation.
The rocks which Riedel uses are also symbolic. For him, they reflect “how we
think we’re in control of everything, and how precarious life is, and how finely
balanced. It’s something out of our control…things come tumbling down.” With
active meditation, our mind unswervingly fixed on out task, we can begin to see
more clearly the things we do have control of in life and how we affect them by
our actions, so that our building blocks do not always come tumbling down.
