Hello all - rediscovering this blog this morning and reading everyone's supportive comments feels like an unmistakable synchronicity - I only started dabbling with sitting in the past few months but have a feeling it will be a good antidote to my tendency to busy-ness. I'd like to commit to 10 mins a day minimum but ideally I'll do 20. Feels a bit like my first day at school being here!
Happy New Year everyone! Yes, it does feel like the first day of a new term ..
And welcome Roy and Fiona. It's really nice to have you both here.
I am going to keep my minimum commitment to 5 minutes as it has worked for me up till now. It hasn't stopped me meditating for longer periods when I choose to but gives me permission to sit briefly when I am unable/unwilling to sit for longer.
I really am grateful to Lorianne for the midnight meditation suggestion yesterday. I had a huge clear out and tidy up of paperwork earlier in the evening, while watching a bit of television, then at around 10.30 I fell asleep on the sofa, waking up with a start at about 11.55pm! I scurried around and started meditating at probably about 11.59pm. It was wonderful, the fireworks and cheers that started shortly after seemed to enhance the meditation rather than distract me from it. I felt supported and uplifted by the noises, lights and bangs, and felt I was participating even though this year I was on my own. I finished at 12.30am - and I think a New Year's Eve tradition has been started. :-)
Happy New Year, everyone. And happy welcome to Roy & Fiona: it's great to "meet" you!
Mary, I'm glad you were motivated to meditate by my talk of midnight practice, because my body failed me! (Can you say "the spirit is willing but the body is weak"?) Like you, I took a nap & intended to get up at midnight...and I did roll over, look at the clock, and listen to some festive neighbors around 11:50 pm. But the next thing I knew, I woke up at 6 am! :-)
Sooooo, I guess my body needed sleep to start the new year. And in the spirit of "preparation for practice begins the night before," I'm going to do some well-rested sitting this morning.
Perhaps this year's motivational mantra should be "better late than never!" :-)
Happy New Year, everyone and welcome to Roy and Fiona and Leslee!
I sat for 20 minutes this morning and felt very content to be starting 1 January that way. At the end I thought of all of you. It went very quiet, the fly stopped buzzing in the next room and the cat chasing it, no noise in the street... and just for a moment I felt encircled, held.
I'm renewing my commitment, this time to at least 20 minutes every day.
I'm not sitting today but that doesn't mean I'm not here with you all and totally committed to continuing starting tomorrow.
Loved hearing about your midnight (and not!) sits.
We had an extraordinary evening with two friends last night (inc oysters foie gras and truffles!) and today is for us - a full day off together before I bum off again on tour!
welcome Fiona!
and big encircling thankful hugs to you all this first day of 2006.
Can't do the sit type meditation, but I have a yoga set I'm trying to incorporate every day. All I think about is breathing. I want to commit to doing at minimum one set of movements every day, and more as I get myself into the habit. May I use this as my motivation with you?
Zhoen, we are a very diverse group and it seems to me that any type of conscious breathing practice should count! I often do walking meditation which is very much movement-based, while focussing on the breath. And welcome to Leslee, Roy, Fiona - it's great to have you with us. I feel like every person adds support to my own commitment, which is simply to meditate every day, regardless of the length of time.
And happy new year, everybody! I'm kind of wiped out but cheerful today; we went to bed about 2:00 am; now, after French toast and a slow start to the morning, Bach's Magnificat is just playing on the radio - what better accompaniment to the waking first day of the year?
Zhoen, I'll echo what Beth & Mary said. In my opinion, yoga is *definitely* meditation, focusing as it does on the breath & mindful attentiveness.
And since I'm also trying to get into a daily yoga habit (doing sitting meditation in the morning & a short yoga routine in the evening), I think we should all keep one another encouraged & accountable.
I just sat 30 minutes, the last 5 minutes or so punctuated by a nosy, nuzzling dog. Now that Reggie's better from his mid-December illness, I'm actually grateful for the interruption: I figure a nosy, nuzzling dog is a healthy dog, and that's a good thing.
Happy New Year, everyone! I drove home last night for an hour or so in one of those snowstorms that makes you feel as though you're driving into a white-bursting tunnel, if that makes any sense (at least to those of you in snow country). It's mesmerizing and hard to keep your eyes on the road. But I made it and got to bed around 2pm.
I woke up at 7am and went back to sleep until 10am. I just sat for about 15 minutes and now that it's after noon I'm ready to start the day!
Glad to find you all here (and glad to hear that Reggie is feeling his doggy wellness again, Lori!).
It feels good to start this year with both compassion and community, two things I hope will sustain me through this year.
My yoga practice flowed into ecstatic dance, or what is known as a "moving meditation practice" under the auspices of Gabrielle Roth's 5 rhythms (flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness). I do a lot of yoga on the dance floor, as well as creative expression of whatever is most central in my life. There's a unity to body and mind when meditation practice includes the movement of the body. Much healing can occur. Though I have also meditated in semi-lotus most days for the last 11 years...
Last night I went to a non-alcoholic drumming party, about 25 drummers and as many dancers. It was surprisingly intimate. I haven't danced for perhaps a year, and afterwards a number of drummers came over and said they enjoyed my dancing, that it seemed very "joyful." I have never been more financially fragile, closer to the edge, and yet... how is this?
Traditionally on New Year's I do a specific meditation on what the next year might hold. It's a minimum of 31 min but longer is better. I don't have my children with me today so the latter may be possible. Anyway, I don't think about anything during the meditation, just put the idea of a prescience of the future into it at the beginning. When the time is up, I write down 'predictions' in the typical areas, finances, career, health, children, relationship, housing, creativity, love, whatever seems most important at the time. Unfortunately, last year's is packed in storage somewhere & I have no idea what I wrote! It turned out to be such a surprising year of unexpected events that I'd be curious to see what was scribbled after my New Year's mediation! Only one year was there an uncanny prediction that there was no way I could have known would happen. Which, of course, has inspired me to do this meditation every year!
It's my New Year's gift to myself. Something along the lines of resolutions, but letting them come up from the depths...
I love this group. Many thanks to you, Dale, for starting this; many thanks to you all for being here.
Much love, wishing you all nothing by magnificent times ahead...
Sat 20 mins this morning. I'm re-committing to three minutes of shamatha daily, and also committing to three daily "accumulations" of my long-dormant ngondro practice.
Welcome Roy, Fiona, Zhoen, and Leslee! Wonderful to have you with us.
What a terrific use of the blog form. I've been wanting/trying to sit for many years. Typically, I have a few days good experience and then fall off the wagon. I'm hoping that the wonderful and wise company here will anchor me on the path.
Dale: I'm wondering what Ngondro practice is and three minutes of Shamatha. (Ignore me if I'm asking too many questions, but I'm truly excited to be here.)
hey beth, I was bought tea in bed thismorning to Bach magnificats and (with a tad of a hangover) I couldn't think of a nicer, gentler way to start the year.
Another year and another new journal ... each year I start a new journal where I record my thoughts in words, sketches, paint and collage
"One Hundred Days" is the theme for this year, and I'll write or draw something every day about this commitment that I share with you. Thank you all for your support and inspiration.
As I start preping a few pages, I'm looking back through some previous journals. I found this page that most perfectly describes my continuing journey ... it's a quote from Carl Sandburg:
I love that Sandburg quote. It is the way I feel about these 100 days.
Migraine shot my day today. 3 hours in bed in the afternoon. Feeling much better now, like I might actually be functional this evening, and - who knows - might even sit today after all!
It's lovely and healing today to read all the excitement and good cheer here.
Welcome, Patry & Jude, too! Grand to have you with us.
Patry, shamatha is the sanskrit name for "calm abiding meditation" -- probably what most people think of when they think of meditation -- also known as shi nay (to Tibetans) and zazen (to Zen practitioners.) There are hundreds of variations but most commonly it's done by sitting still and resting awareness on the breath, & then when you notice your attention has wandered, you bring it back (in my case, over and over and over :->). There are other postures and other things you can rest your awareness on -- those are just the commonest ones. Some variation on shamatha is a basic practice in every contemplative tradition I know of.
Ngondro is a Tibetan practice that combines visualization, chanting, and gestures such as prostrations (i.e. dropping down onto your belly and getting up again.) I described it once in my blog. It's the standard beginning practice for Tibetan tantra.
So I did it, got my dusty text off the top of my bookshelf and faltered my way through the ngondro. For a time I thought I'd forgotten the whole thing -- it's been nearly a year -- but as I started doing the prostrations the words all came back to me; my mind had forgotten them but seemingly my body remembered them :-)
Thanks, everyone, for all your kindness and support. I appreciate it a lot.
Oh & yoga & walking meditation certainly count in my book, too!
Wow - 22 comments so far today! What a great way to begin the next 100 days! Jude and Patry, how wonderful to have you with us! MB, I hope that migraine goes away quickly and stays gone. Ruth, glad to hear we were connected by Bach this morning! I sat for only ten minutes this afternoon, but it felt good and quite centered. I hope to do another 10 before bed.
25 Comments:
Hello all - rediscovering this blog this morning and reading everyone's supportive comments feels like an unmistakable synchronicity - I only started dabbling with sitting in the past few months but have a feeling it will be a good antidote to my tendency to busy-ness. I'd like to commit to 10 mins a day minimum but ideally I'll do 20. Feels a bit like my first day at school being here!
Happy New Year everyone! Yes, it does feel like the first day of a new term ..
And welcome Roy and Fiona. It's really nice to have you both here.
I am going to keep my minimum commitment to 5 minutes as it has worked for me up till now. It hasn't stopped me meditating for longer periods when I choose to but gives me permission to sit briefly when I am unable/unwilling to sit for longer.
I really am grateful to Lorianne for the midnight meditation suggestion yesterday. I had a huge clear out and tidy up of paperwork earlier in the evening, while watching a bit of television, then at around 10.30 I fell asleep on the sofa, waking up with a start at about 11.55pm! I scurried around and started meditating at probably about 11.59pm. It was wonderful, the fireworks and cheers that started shortly after seemed to enhance the meditation rather than distract me from it. I felt supported and uplifted by the noises, lights and bangs, and felt I was participating even though this year I was on my own. I finished at 12.30am - and I think a New Year's Eve tradition has been started. :-)
Happy New Year, everyone. And happy welcome to Roy & Fiona: it's great to "meet" you!
Mary, I'm glad you were motivated to meditate by my talk of midnight practice, because my body failed me! (Can you say "the spirit is willing but the body is weak"?) Like you, I took a nap & intended to get up at midnight...and I did roll over, look at the clock, and listen to some festive neighbors around 11:50 pm. But the next thing I knew, I woke up at 6 am! :-)
Sooooo, I guess my body needed sleep to start the new year. And in the spirit of "preparation for practice begins the night before," I'm going to do some well-rested sitting this morning.
Perhaps this year's motivational mantra should be "better late than never!" :-)
Happy New Year, everyone and welcome to Roy and Fiona and Leslee!
I sat for 20 minutes this morning and felt very content to be starting 1 January that way. At the end I thought of all of you. It went very quiet, the fly stopped buzzing in the next room and the cat chasing it, no noise in the street... and just for a moment I felt encircled, held.
I'm renewing my commitment, this time to at least 20 minutes every day.
I'm not sitting today but that doesn't mean I'm not here with you all and totally committed to continuing starting tomorrow.
Loved hearing about your midnight (and not!) sits.
We had an extraordinary evening with two friends last night (inc oysters foie gras and truffles!) and today is for us - a full day off together before I bum off again on tour!
welcome Fiona!
and big encircling thankful hugs to you all this first day of 2006.
Can't do the sit type meditation, but I have a yoga set I'm trying to incorporate every day. All I think about is breathing. I want to commit to doing at minimum one set of movements every day, and more as I get myself into the habit. May I use this as my motivation with you?
Zhoen, we are a very diverse group and it seems to me that any type of conscious breathing practice should count! I often do walking meditation which is very much movement-based, while focussing on the breath. And welcome to Leslee, Roy, Fiona - it's great to have you with us. I feel like every person adds support to my own commitment, which is simply to meditate every day, regardless of the length of time.
And happy new year, everybody! I'm kind of wiped out but cheerful today; we went to bed about 2:00 am; now, after French toast and a slow start to the morning, Bach's Magnificat is just playing on the radio - what better accompaniment to the waking first day of the year?
Zhoen: I'm with Beth. :-)
Zhoen, I'll echo what Beth & Mary said. In my opinion, yoga is *definitely* meditation, focusing as it does on the breath & mindful attentiveness.
And since I'm also trying to get into a daily yoga habit (doing sitting meditation in the morning & a short yoga routine in the evening), I think we should all keep one another encouraged & accountable.
I just sat 30 minutes, the last 5 minutes or so punctuated by a nosy, nuzzling dog. Now that Reggie's better from his mid-December illness, I'm actually grateful for the interruption: I figure a nosy, nuzzling dog is a healthy dog, and that's a good thing.
Happy New Year, everyone! I drove home last night for an hour or so in one of those snowstorms that makes you feel as though you're driving into a white-bursting tunnel, if that makes any sense (at least to those of you in snow country). It's mesmerizing and hard to keep your eyes on the road. But I made it and got to bed around 2pm.
I woke up at 7am and went back to sleep until 10am. I just sat for about 15 minutes and now that it's after noon I'm ready to start the day!
Glad to find you all here (and glad to hear that Reggie is feeling his doggy wellness again, Lori!).
It feels good to start this year with both compassion and community, two things I hope will sustain me through this year.
Hey, welcome zhoen!
Welcome Leslee, Roy and Zhoen, and Fiona...
My yoga practice flowed into ecstatic dance, or what is known as a "moving meditation practice" under the auspices of Gabrielle Roth's 5 rhythms (flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, stillness). I do a lot of yoga on the dance floor, as well as creative expression of whatever is most central in my life. There's a unity to body and mind when meditation practice includes the movement of the body. Much healing can occur. Though I have also meditated in semi-lotus most days for the last 11 years...
Last night I went to a non-alcoholic drumming party, about 25 drummers and as many dancers. It was surprisingly intimate. I haven't danced for perhaps a year, and afterwards a number of drummers came over and said they enjoyed my dancing, that it seemed very "joyful." I have never been more financially fragile, closer to the edge, and yet... how is this?
Traditionally on New Year's I do a specific meditation on what the next year might hold. It's a minimum of 31 min but longer is better. I don't have my children with me today so the latter may be possible. Anyway, I don't think about anything during the meditation, just put the idea of a prescience of the future into it at the beginning. When the time is up, I write down 'predictions' in the typical areas, finances, career, health, children, relationship, housing, creativity, love, whatever seems most important at the time. Unfortunately, last year's is packed in storage somewhere & I have no idea what I wrote! It turned out to be such a surprising year of unexpected events that I'd be curious to see what was scribbled after my New Year's mediation! Only one year was there an uncanny prediction that there was no way I could have known would happen. Which, of course, has inspired me to do this meditation every year!
It's my New Year's gift to myself. Something along the lines of resolutions, but letting them come up from the depths...
I love this group. Many thanks to you, Dale, for starting this; many thanks to you all for being here.
Much love, wishing you all nothing by magnificent times ahead...
Sat 20 mins this morning. I'm re-committing to three minutes of shamatha daily, and also committing to three daily "accumulations" of my long-dormant ngondro practice.
Welcome Roy, Fiona, Zhoen, and Leslee! Wonderful to have you with us.
Dale, what is ngondro if you don't mind my asking?
What a terrific use of the blog form. I've been wanting/trying to sit for many years. Typically, I have a few days good experience and then fall off the wagon. I'm hoping that the wonderful and wise company here will anchor me on the path.
Dale: I'm wondering what Ngondro practice is and three minutes of Shamatha. (Ignore me if I'm asking too many questions, but I'm truly excited to be here.)
And oh yes, a happy serene 2006 to all!
welcome zhoen.
Yoga certainly counts!
hey beth, I was bought tea in bed thismorning to Bach magnificats and (with a tad of a hangover) I couldn't think of a nicer, gentler way to start the year.
and welcome patry! (oh soon to be published one!)
Another year and another new journal ... each year I start a new journal where I record my thoughts in words, sketches, paint and collage
"One Hundred Days" is the theme for this year, and I'll write or draw something every day about this commitment that I share with you. Thank you all for your support and inspiration.
As I start preping a few pages, I'm looking back through some previous journals. I found this page that most perfectly describes my continuing journey ... it's a quote from Carl Sandburg:
"I don't know where I'm going,
but I'm on my way"
I love that Sandburg quote. It is the way I feel about these 100 days.
Migraine shot my day today. 3 hours in bed in the afternoon. Feeling much better now, like I might actually be functional this evening, and - who knows - might even sit today after all!
It's lovely and healing today to read all the excitement and good cheer here.
Welcome, Patry & Jude, too! Grand to have you with us.
Patry, shamatha is the sanskrit name for "calm abiding meditation" -- probably what most people think of when they think of meditation -- also known as shi nay (to Tibetans) and zazen (to Zen practitioners.) There are hundreds of variations but most commonly it's done by sitting still and resting awareness on the breath, & then when you notice your attention has wandered, you bring it back (in my case, over and over and over :->). There are other postures and other things you can rest your awareness on -- those are just the commonest ones. Some variation on shamatha is a basic practice in every contemplative tradition I know of.
Ngondro is a Tibetan practice that combines visualization, chanting, and gestures such as prostrations (i.e. dropping down onto your belly and getting up again.) I described it once in my blog. It's the standard beginning practice for Tibetan tantra.
So I did it, got my dusty text off the top of my bookshelf and faltered my way through the ngondro. For a time I thought I'd forgotten the whole thing -- it's been nearly a year -- but as I started doing the prostrations the words all came back to me; my mind had forgotten them but seemingly my body remembered them :-)
Thanks, everyone, for all your kindness and support. I appreciate it a lot.
Oh & yoga & walking meditation certainly count in my book, too!
Wow - 22 comments so far today! What a great way to begin the next 100 days! Jude and Patry, how wonderful to have you with us! MB, I hope that migraine goes away quickly and stays gone. Ruth, glad to hear we were connected by Bach this morning! I sat for only ten minutes this afternoon, but it felt good and quite centered. I hope to do another 10 before bed.
I put off sitting until the very end of the day. I let other things get in the way. Finally in the end, I applied butt to cushion for a short while.
Thank you all!
Thanks all for your warm welcome - looking forward to being here for the next 100 days!
I've been looking for a sangha like this . . .
Post a Comment
<< Home