Michael Harding: 'Cork is friendly, more like a country town than a big city'
Michael Harding will read at the Everyman in Cork on May1. Picture: Brian Farrell
Walking is a wonderful thing. Author and playwright Michael Harding has always been a good walker. When in Warsaw writing books, he walked the city’s snow-covered streets to clear his mind and work through ideas. Where he lives near Arigna, on the Leitrim/Roscommon border, he’s surrounded by fantastic wilderness for trekking. He describes walking as like a chanting in the body.
“The human brain can think in duality. You're always thinking of two things. While listening to the radio, you’ll be thinking of something else. The way meditation works is you find a mantra, candle or icon in the image of a Buddha. If you focus on that, you'll notice your brain’s other side is like a river flowing with thoughts. If you keep at it, you get disengaged with those thoughts and you reach a calm state."
