((((Dale))))) Please lean. I have this lovely mental image of all of us leaning back-to-back, so that it's balanced and no one feels any weight.
So many times, both hard times and happy, when I've drifted away from sitting practice. Maybe 15, 20 times over the past few years (is it 7 years? I really can't remember) since I started meditating that I've sat regularly for weeks or months and then dropped the habit. But something did endure and build throughout that time, I'm convinced. This past couple of months is certainly the first time I've kept it going through feelings of depression and demotivation about life in general. And it's still very, very tenuous - don't think it isn't - but also amazing. The first time I've felt simultaneously 'what's the point, everything is despair and disaster' and then, just a breath away, 'everything is absolutely fine'...
I sat for 20 minutes yesterday evening and 15 minutes this morning. I nearly always drift at some point. But always, too, there is a point where I physically feel my attention shift to a slightly deeper level and a tiny space open up.
dale I can't do that virtual hug thing yet, it still seems a bit..well, unenglish!!! but I AM hugging you big time and always glad for your beautiful open writing which seems as much a presence as any sitting.
I for one am always so glad when you appear. Wherever you are in yourself your warmth always radiates. It's extraordinary.
I love jean's image. It reminds me of excercises I've done in string quartets playing back to back, where everyone listens and feels with their bodies and senses the vibrations instead of being guided by their eye and their judgement (so often linked together).
I had another yoga session today. The rest of the class is quite 'behind' as I have had the luck to have had a truly wise teacher for 4 years in Brighton. So I am really practicing presence and non judgement and opening up to whatever is there in the moment. There is always something. I don't think I could have appreciated this before.
Jean, I love your image of us leaning back to back. What a kind thought.
Last night in bed I was tense, wishing I could get up and meditate, thought to focus on breath, and within minutes was asleep. Ahhh. The things we can do when we let the past and future slip to one side.
Hello, all. I'm back from being mostly off-line over Thanksgiving, and entirely off-line the past two days, during which time I was stranded without a laptop in Cleveland.
But, the Cleveland airport has spacious concourses for walking meditation, and this afternoon I found the airport chapel, where I sat in a pew for 15 minutes before my flight. I guess even unintended layovers can be leverage for meditative purposes.
I like the thought of everyone leaning on one another, like dervishes trusting the support of the rest of the whirling circle. Hugs to Dale & all.
thought i'd give you a link to the image i like the most of the double ikat from bali to see if anyone takes to it? I love the light falling across it, like the light of consciousness..
Ruth It's lovely of you to be thinking about this. I like the idea of the ikat, but I'm not sure the photo will work. The shadow is so strong and the pattern so subtle (though obviously the subtlety is its beauty) that, if I hadn't already known it was a piece of cloth, I would not have known what I was looking at.
thanks for your feedback jean. it's amazing what you can fiddle with on photoshop! it could certainly be lightened up if people liked it. I like the anonymity of it ... just a mood? anyway i'm a bit wierd about photos of textures as you might know from my blog! i've put another couple up on the same account for interest. better sit now!!!
Ruth, I like the other two ikat photos. And maybe still the first one, if it can be manipulated so it's easier to 'read'. Not the monk, for the reasons discussed of remaining unspecific to any particular tradition. I am having a stressful day - today's the day our students get their exam results, poor things. So looking at your photos is a nice break.
10 Comments:
Sat for ten minutes last night.
Thanks, you all. I'm leaning on you. It's almost ludicrous how much better virtual hugs can make me feel. (But not quite).
{{{All of you}}}
{{morning hugs}} for Dale and all of you.
"ykbeuzx"
I've decided think that would be pronounced "yuck berserk".
((((Dale))))) Please lean. I have this lovely mental image of all of us leaning back-to-back, so that it's balanced and no one feels any weight.
So many times, both hard times and happy, when I've drifted away from sitting practice. Maybe 15, 20 times over the past few years (is it 7 years? I really can't remember) since I started meditating that I've sat regularly for weeks or months and then dropped the habit. But something did endure and build throughout that time, I'm convinced. This past couple of months is certainly the first time I've kept it going through feelings of depression and demotivation about life in general. And it's still very, very tenuous - don't think it isn't - but also amazing. The first time I've felt simultaneously 'what's the point, everything is despair and disaster' and then, just a breath away, 'everything is absolutely fine'...
I sat for 20 minutes yesterday evening and 15 minutes this morning. I nearly always drift at some point. But always, too, there is a point where I physically feel my attention shift to a slightly deeper level and a tiny space open up.
dale I can't do that virtual hug thing yet, it still seems a bit..well, unenglish!!! but I AM hugging you big time and always glad for your beautiful open writing which seems as much a presence as any sitting.
I for one am always so glad when you appear. Wherever you are in yourself your warmth always radiates. It's extraordinary.
I love jean's image. It reminds me of excercises I've done in string quartets playing back to back, where everyone listens and feels with their bodies and senses the vibrations instead of being guided by their eye and their judgement (so often linked together).
I had another yoga session today. The rest of the class is quite 'behind' as I have had the luck to have had a truly wise teacher for 4 years in Brighton. So I am really practicing presence and non judgement and opening up to whatever is there in the moment. There is always something. I don't think I could have appreciated this before.
Ah, Dale, lean away. Goodness knows I have.
Jean, I love your image of us leaning back to back. What a kind thought.
Last night in bed I was tense, wishing I could get up and meditate, thought to focus on breath, and within minutes was asleep. Ahhh. The things we can do when we let the past and future slip to one side.
Hello, all. I'm back from being mostly off-line over Thanksgiving, and entirely off-line the past two days, during which time I was stranded without a laptop in Cleveland.
But, the Cleveland airport has spacious concourses for walking meditation, and this afternoon I found the airport chapel, where I sat in a pew for 15 minutes before my flight. I guess even unintended layovers can be leverage for meditative purposes.
I like the thought of everyone leaning on one another, like dervishes trusting the support of the rest of the whirling circle. Hugs to Dale & all.
igbxn!
hello again lorraine!
thought i'd give you a link to the image i like the most of the double ikat from bali to see if anyone takes to it? I love the light falling across it, like the light of consciousness..
http://flickr.com/photos/93563935@N00/68646991/
Ruth
It's lovely of you to be thinking about this. I like the idea of the ikat, but I'm not sure the photo will work. The shadow is so strong and the pattern so subtle (though obviously the subtlety is its beauty) that, if I hadn't already known it was a piece of cloth, I would not have known what I was looking at.
thanks for your feedback jean. it's amazing what you can fiddle with on photoshop! it could certainly be lightened up if people liked it. I like the anonymity of it ... just a mood? anyway i'm a bit wierd about photos of textures as you might know from my blog! i've put another couple up on the same account for interest. better sit now!!!
Ruth, I like the other two ikat photos. And maybe still the first one, if it can be manipulated so it's easier to 'read'. Not the monk, for the reasons discussed of remaining unspecific to any particular tradition. I am having a stressful day - today's the day our students get their exam results, poor things. So looking at your photos is a nice break.
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