Have just finished meditating. A HUGELY distracted session - considerable fear and anxiety about one particular issue. Realising and observing my false dependence on things staying the same and how they never do ... so really it is good stuff, it just doesn't feel like it.
Doing a massage this morning which is good. Then a friend will be callling in, then more housework in preparation for my Xmas guest. Nothing like having guests to get you to clear up.
I've just read Dec 19th, the comment thread on meditation centres, most interesting. The person I meditated the most with, 5 years intensely & sporadically since then, was also a Kundalini yoga teacher, we met in teacher training, but a Tibetan Buddhist for 20 years before that, connected to a centre. She's a fabulous woman from whom I learnt much, finally mostly that it didn't need to be about discipline so much as about ecstasy- she's a teacher of ecstasy, I know that now. Her name, interestingly, is Jean. Hopefully I'll see her over the holidays...
I came here by way of Lorianne's "Hoarded Ordinaries" ... with the intent of starting into my '100 Days' commitment on January 1.
I put this in the OVERTIME DAY 5 by mistake ... apologize for double post
Maybe I'll just ease into it for a few days ... problem with an arthritic knee, and feeling resentful that I can't sit in regular zazen posture
I have a plan, and I call it '20-20-20' meaning twenty minutes yoga, twenty minutes zazen, twenty minutes walking ... with the intent of expanding to 30-30-30 and then 40-40-40
Lots of serendipitous revelations lately that lead me to think about changing my koan ... more about that later
Hi to Brenda from Toronto (my home town) but now on Vancouver Island
Great to "see" you here, Janice...and welcome! This 'Overtime' period between now & the new year is a great time to ease into practice...or a great time to try to stay sane with the holidays approaching!
I didn't meditate on my mat today...but I spent about 15 minutes following my breath while stuck in traffic trying to enter the grocery store parking lot, which was mobbed with holiday shoppers. (The grocery shares a lot with a big box store, and folks come from surrounding towns to shop here.)
Soooo, I feel like it took a lot of "Zenfulness" just to get a week's worth of groceries! :-)
Mary, a massage sounds divine right about now. Tonight & tomorrow morning I'll be doing pre-holiday housework as well, so we'll send cleansing vibes across the miles, okay? :-)
{{{Mary}}} I suppose old those crusty old buddhist philosophers are right, and without impermanence consciousness wouldn't even be possible, but it's still a bitch.
Just being civil to people during the holidays takes all the zenfulness I got & more, Lorianne! I'm a horrible grinch.
Brenda, yes, it's easy to get narrowly focused on the discipline, and in the long run I think it's a big mistake -- making meditation a joyless chore. Though I suppose expecting ecstasy is also a good way to get discouraged, because it tends to be there only when we don't expect it :-)
The longer I'm at this the more I appreciate the Kagyu teachers who stubbornly insist, "just do the practice!"
5 Comments:
Have just finished meditating. A HUGELY distracted session - considerable fear and anxiety about one particular issue. Realising and observing my false dependence on things staying the same and how they never do ... so really it is good stuff, it just doesn't feel like it.
Doing a massage this morning which is good. Then a friend will be callling in, then more housework in preparation for my Xmas guest. Nothing like having guests to get you to clear up.
I've just read Dec 19th, the comment thread on meditation centres, most interesting. The person I meditated the most with, 5 years intensely & sporadically since then, was also a Kundalini yoga teacher, we met in teacher training, but a Tibetan Buddhist for 20 years before that, connected to a centre. She's a fabulous woman from whom I learnt much, finally mostly that it didn't need to be about discipline so much as about ecstasy- she's a teacher of ecstasy, I know that now. Her name, interestingly, is Jean. Hopefully I'll see her over the holidays...
Hi all
I came here by way of Lorianne's "Hoarded Ordinaries" ... with the intent of starting into my '100 Days' commitment on January 1.
I put this in the OVERTIME DAY 5 by mistake ... apologize for double post
Maybe I'll just ease into it for a few days ... problem with an arthritic knee, and feeling resentful that I can't sit in regular zazen posture
I have a plan, and I call it '20-20-20' meaning twenty minutes yoga, twenty minutes zazen, twenty minutes walking ... with the intent of expanding to 30-30-30 and then 40-40-40
Lots of serendipitous revelations lately that lead me to think about changing my koan ... more about that later
Hi to Brenda from Toronto (my home town) but now on Vancouver Island
Great to "see" you here, Janice...and welcome! This 'Overtime' period between now & the new year is a great time to ease into practice...or a great time to try to stay sane with the holidays approaching!
I didn't meditate on my mat today...but I spent about 15 minutes following my breath while stuck in traffic trying to enter the grocery store parking lot, which was mobbed with holiday shoppers. (The grocery shares a lot with a big box store, and folks come from surrounding towns to shop here.)
Soooo, I feel like it took a lot of "Zenfulness" just to get a week's worth of groceries! :-)
Mary, a massage sounds divine right about now. Tonight & tomorrow morning I'll be doing pre-holiday housework as well, so we'll send cleansing vibes across the miles, okay? :-)
Welcome, Janice!
{{{Mary}}} I suppose old those crusty old buddhist philosophers are right, and without impermanence consciousness wouldn't even be possible, but it's still a bitch.
Just being civil to people during the holidays takes all the zenfulness I got & more, Lorianne! I'm a horrible grinch.
Brenda, yes, it's easy to get narrowly focused on the discipline, and in the long run I think it's a big mistake -- making meditation a joyless chore. Though I suppose expecting ecstasy is also a good way to get discouraged, because it tends to be there only when we don't expect it :-)
The longer I'm at this the more I appreciate the Kagyu teachers who stubbornly insist, "just do the practice!"
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