Learning mindful creation from water

Lao Tzu dedicated the entire chapter 8 of ⌜Tao Te Ching⌟ to describe the mindful characteristic of water. It writes: “The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. Thus it is like the Tao.”

Many of the sights we see are crafted by water over millions of years. They are often accumulative processes with ease and persistence over a long period. The appreciation of such processes may inform the design of Mindful Digital Experience. In this article, I narrow the focus on how water shape stones — a tiny aspect of nature.

Water: a master of Mindful Creation

Besides nourishing the plants and keeping our bodies hydrated, water also forms stones. Because water is ‘weak’ and stone is ‘hard,’ there is no immediate visible impact at all. Yet, by persistency over a long time, it shapes stones in amazing ways that humans appreciate and utilize.

That persistency over a long time is water’s mindful creation process. Two examples:

1. Stalactites and Stalagmites

Many caves have these fantastic looking stalactites and stalagmites. They form when water containing dissolved calcium bicarbonate from the limestone rock drips from the cave ceiling. Stalactites grow downwards, and stalagmite grows upwards until they eventually meet to create a column.

It takes a consistent dripping of water one thousand years to form 10cm stalactites and tens of thousands of years to create a sight like below.

Fascinating stalactites (Left); How they are formed by water drops containing minerals (Right)

2. Pebbles

Pebbles are often seen in Japanese zen gardens. They are of various sizes, colors, and textures. They take shape gradually over millions of years as the ocean water wears off the sharp corners. The result is a smooth, rounded appearance.

Beautiful pebbles used in Zen garden (Left); How pebbles are formed by waves (Right)

What does this mean for designing mindful digital experiences?

1. Rich interaction

We can map repetitive mindful movements to match relevant water behaviors. For instance, gentle and repetitive tapping of the touch display could be mapped to generating water droplets.

2. Create meaning & visualise progress

We can wrap a mindful practice with a mindful creation experience to give meaning to the practice. As the user continuously engaged, it keeps shaping the creation towards more refined and interesting ways. That visualizes progress and encourages users to keep at the practice.

I think all of us can benefit from learning how nature creates things in it’s calm and fascinating ways. If digital designs can invite people to take a pause from chasing personal goals and interact with nature inspired experiences like these, we are adding value to people’s lives. After all, we are all part of nature.