On Impulse

10 Ramadhan, 1440

I'm experiencing the usual small astonishment noting the fact we're a third of the way through the fasting month. Speaking of myself, from past experience, by now it should have become a normal part of the routine, and it felt that way until 3.15 pm today, when I suddenly very much wanted to drink a cup of sugary coffee (made from one of those 3 in 1 sachets). I have no idea why this was, but I ignored the impulse and just got on with things, as one does, and the impulse disappeared, as impulses do.

I suppose it's akin to awareness of the monkey mind during meditation, the detached monitoring of thoughts and attendant awareness of how odd they often are. In this case it's the recognition of how the impulses that so often drive us and feel so much part of us are, in a sense, intruders. The powerful need for a cup of coffee came from somewhere inside, but it didn't necessarily come from whatever part of me is real.