Hi Ruth, you just beat me to this! Now I'm back at work, I'll be able to post the new day when I get to the office, if no one else has by then. Thanks for changing the time. Hope you feel rested after the hols and the next round of touring goes well. Wherever you check in from, I'll now be able to imagine you on stage there (Mary and I went to a wonderful concert of Ruth's group playing Bach and Pergolesi when they came to London in December, and we MET briefly :-)
Oh god, yes, back to work. Here I am back at my desk in my office for the first time since 22 December. It could be worse: since no one else is here (other two administrators in my university department chose to take more time off and we shan't see hide nor hair of a lecturer until next week) I can settle in as painlessly as possible, breathing deeply, playing music (Bach cello suites, of course), opening all the doors and windows and breathing gently...
I sat for 20 minutes before leaving home and also walked the last two miles of the journey to work (another kind of meditation), and am really glad I managed to do that on the first day back.
Thanks for your good wishes Jean. I've set the time on GMT. Does this make sense? If not feel free to change.
welcome anna and siona!
just leaving.
after very lovely day and evening we had the traditional huge row last night. feeling cold and chlaustrophobic so went for a run, then a walk and then sat for 15 mins in front of an open window feeling the warmth of the sun flood my heart area. lord knows if it'll do any good. times like last night set me back and I lose faith. However, I know that alcohol was the main reason we got out of control and were unkind to one-another, not a failing meditation practice.
it's so beautiful here today and I feel nonetheless held by nature.
Soen Joon made me laugh out loud at with yesterday's final comment about tequila...but now that I've read about Ruth's experience with alcohol-related unkind words, I'm not laughing anymore.
It's a fine line, isn't it, between a little spirit to *raise* the spirit and enough to bring out your bad karma. I guess that's why the Buddhist precept forbids "intoxicants taken to induce heedlessness." If a little intoxication makes you happy, there's presumably no harm in that. But if intoxication makes you heedless of others, that's bad.
(And whenever I talk to new preceptees about "intoxicants," I point out that things other than alcohol can be included. I for one become a Heedless Monster under the influence of too much caffeine or sugar, so I need to watch those.)
Word verfication: skkuh That's either "sukkah," the Buddhist (Sanskrit?) term for joy (opposite of "dukkah," which is suffering). Or it's a variation on what you yell out to someone who's been fooled again: "Suck-ah!"
Ah there. Today I read about this website at Siona's, at Lorianne's and now I coincidentally surfed accross Ruth's blog (whom I did not know before) who mentions '100 days' as well. Perhaps it is a sign, and if it is not, I'd like to pretend it is. I could use a daily meditation motivation like a website as this! Yesterday I blogged (once again) about my sense of restlessness at verdeliet.nl, and while writing it I knew 'a' solution. But I rarely do what is good for me.
Dale, thank you for creating the 100days idea! I'm in, if you are ok. As most people know, I am not a regular commenter anywhere, thus I will probably not be here either. But I'd like to pay daily visits to read everyone's comments, to motivate myself to make meditation a daily exercise again.
Started off well this morning for a couple of minutes, then my housemate unexpectedly returned home from vet school (she had a spay this morning and was very excited) and she was yakking loudly on her cell phone downstairs from me. Then she came up calling for me and when she found my bedroom door shut she went back downstairs and got on her cell again. I did try to come back to my breath with each interuption and to hold compassion in my thoughts for her and for my irritation. But then my foot started falling asleep and I was irritated that I'd now reached the point where my body couldn't sit that way anymore. I had to give up! I guess an experienced meditator can meditate in Grand Central Station, but I'm not there yet! Sigh. Maybe I'll try sitting again a bit later.
Meanwhile, there is heavy wet snow falling here and outside my door it looks silent with the gathering, muffling snow.
K's still excitedly talking on her cell - I'd better go find out what happened!
Hugs and smiles and a big welcome to Devon and Siona and Anne!
It is beautiful to think of Jude walking meditatively in the bush and hearing the cicadas and the kookaburras anew, while Leslee meditates as the snow falls... we are everywhere!
Leslee, maybe you could make a 'I'm meditating' sign for the door of your room? I can see how the thought of your housemate's excitement over spaying her first dog would not be conducive... :-)
Anne-Mieke, I'm delighted you're here! And welcome, Devon. It's hard to practice in the middle of the storm, I know. Tho on the other hand the need for it is never clearer :-) Hope everything works out okay.
I want to clear up my role here: I'm just the person who happened to slap up the first day, last time, on what was then an ugly off-the-shelf blog (since made beautiful by Ruth & Julian!) So I don't have any special rank or controlling interest. Ruth and I have administrative privileges and seven or eight old hands can post (in practice it looks like the Europeans will usually be "posting the days"; call it penance for their imperial pasts :->) But that's the extent to which any animals here are more equal than any other animals.
I just sat for 20 minutes. It occurs to me that although I sit for 30 minutes when I go to a Zen Center, 20 minutes seems to work best when I sit on my own at home. It fits my personal rhythm, I think.
Devon & Anne-Mieke, it's great to see you here: welcome. And there's no shame in commenting seldom, sporadically, or never. Do whatever works, and I hope you find encouragement & strength knowing there are other folks meditating everywhere.
Leslee, I think overheard conversations are the *worst* sort of distraction. Grand Central Station is *easy* because the general hubbub blurs any individual distraction. But it's impossible *not* to eavesdrop on (or *try* to eavesdrop on!) a loud, excited conversation. So when you have a housemate, your meditation has to be more flexible than if you didn't.
(In my case, I have an upstairs neighbor who's usually quiet...but when she's not, I don't even try to meditate!)
Hello to all: So, I sat for twenty minutes this afternoon - well, 15 mins. probably because the first few minutes were taken up with feeling uncomfortable cross-legged as if I were falling backwards a bit so I went and found two cushions and knelt on them which was much better. I had decided that I would focus on the breath. Immediately, though,I began to think about the cushions and that I need to buy some new ones; and oh, I forgot to turn the phone off - shall I get up and do it?; and why did I put the washing machine on just before I sat to meditate; and I should be writing the PhD (don't ask!); maybe I should meditate first thing or in the evening - and blah de blah de blah. However, I did try to keep pulling the focus back to the breath and not to label myself a failure. I found that counting the breaths was a help in calming the thoughts. I do have a question about this though - if you're counting the breaths and focusing on that will I hear the profound thoughts when/if they arise?
I'm going to do another little session this evening.
I expect some people here have favourite links they can provide.
Meanwhile, just found very quickly on the web, nice clear illustrations of the range of main well-tried meditation postures. Worth trying them all to see what suits your body. Having your knees lower than your hips, however many cushions under the back part of your bottom this takes, is crucial for stability when crosslegged. If you can't do this, even with a lot of cushions, as I can't, better to do one of the others.
Blogger comments generally don't like links and I don't know how to add html tags, but if you cut and paste it will usually work.
Re profound thoughts arising, Anna, again, others will be able to address this much better than me, but I'd say it's more about calming and clearing your mind so that it has, amongst other things, more space for deep thoughts at any time, not necessarily during your meditation.
I am NOT connected with Dharma crafts - this was just more comprehensive than anything I could find on quick search of some meditation teachers and centres sites...
Well, K didn't do a spay this morning (this is her 2nd one) - she got there at 6am and they sent them all home because of the snow. Which is why she was home and unexpectedly interrupted my sit.
As for postures, I'm still deciding whether my zafu cushion or simply a folded blanket is more comfortable. I sit on the floor with my back straight against my bed - maybe cheating to have my back against something, but if you can sit in a chair to do it, I figure you can have you back supported. I just try to make sure I'm straight and can breathe freely.
Thanks, all. Yes, Lorianne, I figure hearing a conversation is probably nearly impossible to ignore!
Yesterday I braved one of my 2.5 hour meditations, but during the day instead of the evening. It was much harder. I wished later that I hadn't got up and done laundry in the middle of it, still chanting my simple mantra! Usually after 2 hours I am so deeply into a vast rich nothingness, where creation itself seems to sing, that I feel completely re-centered, whole again. Yesterday I didn't achieve that depth, but did do my New Year's predictions -:) and then didn't write them down, they are so opaque, like poetry, that I've already forgotten most of them.
When I don't unfold to that point of flowing rich stillness I get stubborn. Oh sigh. As soon as I can manage such a length of time again, I shall go back in. Where my thoughts tumble, and keep me dancing acrobats of words and images, must be something I need to ponder and absorb the meaning of. I need to explore that hubbub, whatever it is that kept me from the complexly rich and full and silent depths yesterday.
It is never the same, no. But you know when you've broken through your barriors.
My inner mindscape formed a trampoline in the meditation that caught me and I want to dive right through it.
Dang it, I'm not trying to be modest, Jean, I'm trying to wriggle out of responsibility :-)
Anna, I wrote a couple posts about beginning meditation some time ago: confessions, about not being able to quiet my mind, and how to be uncomfortable, about what to do with pain & discomfort. They've been linked to a lot more than anything else I've written, so some people have found them useful.
The most important thing to bear in mind, possibly, is this: the meditation isn't something that starts when the distraction stops. In a way meditation is all about distraction. Our tendency to get distracted is the really the only reason to meditate; if we could sit down and go straight into profound stillness and stay there as long as we wanted, we'd be fully enlightened already, and we'd have no reason to meditate.
As far as profound thoughts go -- it all depends on what kind of meditation you're doing. In shamatha as I practice it, a thought is a thought is a thought, and they're all distractions, no matter how deep. But yes, the mind will settle, eventually -- the distractions will burn themselves out, as you learn to stop feeding them, and you will reach an at least occasional spacious stillness.
Hi all, just touching base very quickly without having read what everyone else has said yet, my internet access is a bit patchy at the moment. Haven't had time to sit yet today and if it wasn't for this place I probably wouldn't - but it's given me an extra push today (esp so early on in the 100 days!) to escape upstairs in a minute before I eat. Thankyou for all your help with my moving dilemma - feel much clearer about that now. Speak again soon!
Thanks, Jean, for the link to Dharmacrafts' postures page. For those who can't see the entire URL, here's a tiny link to copy & paste:
http://tinyurl.com/8o7df
I'm not officially connected with Dharmacrafts, but I do know the woman who started the company. Whereas a lot of meditation suppliers use unskilled, *free* retreat labor, Dharmacrafts gives their workers a living wage, childcare, and other benefits. They also do social outreach in their community, so they're a *good* company.
If anyone's looking to buy meditation gear, I'd recommend them. That's not an advertisement; that's the testimony of a satisfied longtime customer. :-)
Anna, I'm with Dale when it comes to profound thoughts: they're *all* thoughts. Instead of sitting there trying to sift the profound thoughts from the petty ones, I try to let them all pass like clouds while I return to the breath, return to the breath, return to the breath.
Over & over, I return to the breath each time my mind is distracted, which is A LOT. Each of these "returnings" is a spot of awakening as I realize OOOPS my mind is wandering, turn it back. So there's no shame in distraction as long as you steer yourself (gently!) back, back, back.
If a TRULY profound thought arises during meditation (e.g. a cure for AIDS, the first line of next Great American Novel, etc), it will stick around until after I'm *done* meditating and can write it down. Many of the thoughts that *seem* profound at the time are actually petty, and they thankfully pass.
My sit today was 20 minutes of monkey mind ... a thought flits in here, another thought flits in, and so on and so on
Inhale, exhale, ONE; inhale, exhale TWO ... library books are overdue, back to ONE, TWO, THREE budget needs a good reworking, and so on, you get the idea... will that package of books arrive today?, mail has been slow and sporadic since before Christmas, finish painting the journal entries, buy lentils for the stoop tonight.
Dang ... back to one.
I start my sitting periods by counting breaths ... one to ten. If I lose it before getting to ten, start back again at one. Generally after two or three rounds, I settle in and just sit with my breath and my posture.
Roshi always told us to imagine the thoughts as freight cars passing by ... in between each car/thought is a clear space. Eventually the spaces get larger and the thoughts diminish.
ps ... stoop is thicker than soup and thinner than stew
Thanks Dale and Lorianne. I know I must not fall into my habitual mode of "the right and perfect way" (to self-enlightenment :)). A Buddhist friend, who chants regularly, once told me that she has made some of her most important decisions through chanting (I'm not exactly sure how Now I come to think of it) and I suppose I have always thought since that through a meditation practice, in the stillness, the space between the monkey mind thoughts, the right path might open itself up to me and I'd know what to do with my life! I know, wrong! Ok, I'm just going to sit and see. Anna. PS. Read my verification oeuzp as "ease up"!
Thanks for your warm welcomes! It is 22.08 here and bedtime for me and my flewy head. An evening breeze tea and than a first, short sitting on the cushion before I go to sleep. Goodnight.
Oh, Zhoen, I'm sorry to hear about the bursitis. I had a nasty bout with it in one elbow a couple years ago. The worst pain I've ever experienced, hands down.
Welcome, Devon, Anna, Eileen! And Siona and Anne-Mieke - how great to see you here!
Postures: I usually sit using the cross-legged posture - the trick for me is to get my seat up high enough so that the knees can fall naturally lower - then it's pretty comfortable. If one leg or foot starts to go to sleep, I can usually relieve the feeling by jiggling it a little, then settling back down. But I have no qualms about meditating sitting in a chair at times, or even lying down. I do think it is important to try to keep the back relatively straight, whatever posture you use, and I try to "correct" that during sitting if I notice I'm slumping or listing!
And I'm with Dale and Lorianne - thoughts are thoughts. What I *do* try to notice afterwards are the general patterns - what do I seem to be returning to, worrying about? Do my thoughts take the from of conversations? Imaginary compositions? Arguments? Lists? Images? Specific people? Those are the kinds of things that help me know myself better. But I try not to do that kind of thinking *while* I'm meditating!
I came to meditate. I used to belong to a group that studied under a Taoist master and for a year I meditated every morning from 6-7. Amazing things took place. Much time has passed and a friend of mine, Brenda Clews, invited me to join this HUGE -- She never told me it was so huge. I don't do well with huge -- group because I'd like to work on some things this year. And the way I'd like to approach the change is through sitting with some positive intention every day. Just for a short time each day. And I'd like to check in when I'm done. Make myself accountable to you. My name is Prudence.
Prudence, I think we'll all a little stunned by the size of this! We rolled along averaging six or seven comments a day, for our last hundred days.
But welcome! I hope & expect, that the atmosphere will stay as "small" and kindly as it has been heretofore. I don't think many of us here *do* think of ourselves as people who do well with huge :-) I'm delighted to have someone with a Taoist background aboard -- I'd been hoping someone would show up who knew that practice tradition. I only know it as literature.
28 Comments:
Hi Ruth, you just beat me to this! Now I'm back at work, I'll be able to post the new day when I get to the office, if no one else has by then. Thanks for changing the time. Hope you feel rested after the hols and the next round of touring goes well. Wherever you check in from, I'll now be able to imagine you on stage there (Mary and I went to a wonderful concert of Ruth's group playing Bach and Pergolesi when they came to London in December, and we MET briefly :-)
Oh god, yes, back to work. Here I am back at my desk in my office for the first time since 22 December. It could be worse: since no one else is here (other two administrators in my university department chose to take more time off and we shan't see hide nor hair of a lecturer until next week) I can settle in as painlessly as possible, breathing deeply, playing music (Bach cello suites, of course), opening all the doors and windows and breathing gently...
I sat for 20 minutes before leaving home and also walked the last two miles of the journey to work (another kind of meditation), and am really glad I managed to do that on the first day back.
Thanks for your good wishes Jean. I've set the time on GMT. Does this make sense? If not feel free to change.
welcome anna and siona!
just leaving.
after very lovely day and evening we had the traditional huge row last night. feeling cold and chlaustrophobic so went for a run, then a walk and then sat for 15 mins in front of an open window feeling the warmth of the sun flood my heart area. lord knows if it'll do any good. times like last night set me back and I lose faith. However, I know that alcohol was the main reason we got out of control and were unkind to one-another, not a failing meditation practice.
it's so beautiful here today and I feel nonetheless held by nature.
Soen Joon made me laugh out loud at with yesterday's final comment about tequila...but now that I've read about Ruth's experience with alcohol-related unkind words, I'm not laughing anymore.
It's a fine line, isn't it, between a little spirit to *raise* the spirit and enough to bring out your bad karma. I guess that's why the Buddhist precept forbids "intoxicants taken to induce heedlessness." If a little intoxication makes you happy, there's presumably no harm in that. But if intoxication makes you heedless of others, that's bad.
(And whenever I talk to new preceptees about "intoxicants," I point out that things other than alcohol can be included. I for one become a Heedless Monster under the influence of too much caffeine or sugar, so I need to watch those.)
Word verfication: skkuh
That's either "sukkah," the Buddhist (Sanskrit?) term for joy (opposite of "dukkah," which is suffering).
Or it's a variation on what you yell out to someone who's been fooled again: "Suck-ah!"
Ah there. Today I read about this website at Siona's, at Lorianne's and now I coincidentally surfed accross Ruth's blog (whom I did not know before) who mentions '100 days' as well. Perhaps it is a sign, and if it is not, I'd like to pretend it is. I could use a daily meditation motivation like a website as this! Yesterday I blogged (once again) about my sense of restlessness at verdeliet.nl, and while writing it I knew 'a' solution. But I rarely do what is good for me.
Dale, thank you for creating the 100days idea! I'm in, if you are ok. As most people know, I am not a regular commenter anywhere, thus I will probably not be here either. But I'd like to pay daily visits to read everyone's comments, to motivate myself to make meditation a daily exercise again.
Greetings to everyone! And a happy new year.
Started off well this morning for a couple of minutes, then my housemate unexpectedly returned home from vet school (she had a spay this morning and was very excited) and she was yakking loudly on her cell phone downstairs from me. Then she came up calling for me and when she found my bedroom door shut she went back downstairs and got on her cell again. I did try to come back to my breath with each interuption and to hold compassion in my thoughts for her and for my irritation. But then my foot started falling asleep and I was irritated that I'd now reached the point where my body couldn't sit that way anymore. I had to give up! I guess an experienced meditator can meditate in Grand Central Station, but I'm not there yet! Sigh. Maybe I'll try sitting again a bit later.
Meanwhile, there is heavy wet snow falling here and outside my door it looks silent with the gathering, muffling snow.
K's still excitedly talking on her cell - I'd better go find out what happened!
Hugs and smiles and a big welcome to Devon and Siona and Anne!
It is beautiful to think of Jude walking meditatively in the bush and hearing the cicadas and the kookaburras anew, while Leslee meditates as the snow falls... we are everywhere!
Leslee, maybe you could make a 'I'm meditating' sign for the door of your room? I can see how the thought of your housemate's excitement over spaying her first dog would not be conducive... :-)
Anne-Mieke, I'm delighted you're here! And welcome, Devon. It's hard to practice in the middle of the storm, I know. Tho on the other hand the need for it is never clearer :-) Hope everything works out okay.
I want to clear up my role here: I'm just the person who happened to slap up the first day, last time, on what was then an ugly off-the-shelf blog (since made beautiful by Ruth & Julian!) So I don't have any special rank or controlling interest. Ruth and I have administrative privileges and seven or eight old hands can post (in practice it looks like the Europeans will usually be "posting the days"; call it penance for their imperial pasts :->) But that's the extent to which any animals here are more equal than any other animals.
Oh pshaw, Dale! It was your idea, and we all think it was a great one!!!!
I just sat for 20 minutes. It occurs to me that although I sit for 30 minutes when I go to a Zen Center, 20 minutes seems to work best when I sit on my own at home. It fits my personal rhythm, I think.
Devon & Anne-Mieke, it's great to see you here: welcome. And there's no shame in commenting seldom, sporadically, or never. Do whatever works, and I hope you find encouragement & strength knowing there are other folks meditating everywhere.
Leslee, I think overheard conversations are the *worst* sort of distraction. Grand Central Station is *easy* because the general hubbub blurs any individual distraction. But it's impossible *not* to eavesdrop on (or *try* to eavesdrop on!) a loud, excited conversation. So when you have a housemate, your meditation has to be more flexible than if you didn't.
(In my case, I have an upstairs neighbor who's usually quiet...but when she's not, I don't even try to meditate!)
Hello to all:
So, I sat for twenty minutes this afternoon - well, 15 mins. probably because the first few minutes were taken up with feeling uncomfortable cross-legged as if I were falling backwards a bit so I went and found two cushions and knelt on them which was much better. I had decided that I would focus on the breath. Immediately, though,I began to think about the cushions and that I need to buy some new ones; and oh, I forgot to turn the phone off - shall I get up and do it?; and why did I put the washing machine on just before I sat to meditate; and I should be writing the PhD (don't ask!); maybe I should meditate first thing or in the evening - and blah de blah de blah. However, I did try to keep pulling the focus back to the breath and not to label myself a failure. I found that counting the breaths was a help in calming the thoughts. I do have a question about this though - if you're counting the breaths and focusing on that will I hear the profound thoughts when/if they arise?
I'm going to do another little session this evening.
Anna.
Meditation postures:
I expect some people here have favourite links they can provide.
Meanwhile, just found very quickly on the web, nice clear illustrations of the range of main well-tried meditation postures. Worth trying them all to see what suits your body. Having your knees lower than your hips, however many cushions under the back part of your bottom this takes, is crucial for stability when crosslegged. If you can't do this, even with a lot of cushions, as I can't, better to do one of the others.
http://www.dharmacrafts.com/100xCU/2INFO01/meditation-technique-posture-photos.html
Blogger comments generally don't like links and I don't know how to add html tags, but if you cut and paste it will usually work.
Re profound thoughts arising, Anna, again, others will be able to address this much better than me, but I'd say it's more about calming and clearing your mind so that it has, amongst other things, more space for deep thoughts at any time, not necessarily during your meditation.
I am NOT connected with Dharma crafts - this was just more comprehensive than anything I could find on quick search of some meditation teachers and centres sites...
Well, K didn't do a spay this morning (this is her 2nd one) - she got there at 6am and they sent them all home because of the snow. Which is why she was home and unexpectedly interrupted my sit.
As for postures, I'm still deciding whether my zafu cushion or simply a folded blanket is more comfortable. I sit on the floor with my back straight against my bed - maybe cheating to have my back against something, but if you can sit in a chair to do it, I figure you can have you back supported. I just try to make sure I'm straight and can breathe freely.
Thanks, all. Yes, Lorianne, I figure hearing a conversation is probably nearly impossible to ignore!
Welcome Devon and Anne!
Yesterday I braved one of my 2.5 hour meditations, but during the day instead of the evening. It was much harder. I wished later that I hadn't got up and done laundry in the middle of it, still chanting my simple mantra! Usually after 2 hours I am so deeply into a vast rich nothingness, where creation itself seems to sing, that I feel completely re-centered, whole again. Yesterday I didn't achieve that depth, but did do my New Year's predictions -:) and then didn't write them down, they are so opaque, like poetry, that I've already forgotten most of them.
When I don't unfold to that point of flowing rich stillness I get stubborn. Oh sigh. As soon as I can manage such a length of time again, I shall go back in. Where my thoughts tumble, and keep me dancing acrobats of words and images, must be something I need to ponder and absorb the meaning of. I need to explore that hubbub, whatever it is that kept me from the complexly rich and full and silent depths yesterday.
It is never the same, no. But you know when you've broken through your barriors.
My inner mindscape formed a trampoline in the meditation that caught me and I want to dive right through it.
Dang it, I'm not trying to be modest, Jean, I'm trying to wriggle out of responsibility :-)
Anna, I wrote a couple posts about beginning meditation some time ago: confessions, about not being able to quiet my mind, and how to be uncomfortable, about what to do with pain & discomfort. They've been linked to a lot more than anything else I've written, so some people have found them useful.
The most important thing to bear in mind, possibly, is this: the meditation isn't something that starts when the distraction stops. In a way meditation is all about distraction. Our tendency to get distracted is the really the only reason to meditate; if we could sit down and go straight into profound stillness and stay there as long as we wanted, we'd be fully enlightened already, and we'd have no reason to meditate.
As far as profound thoughts go -- it all depends on what kind of meditation you're doing. In shamatha as I practice it, a thought is a thought is a thought, and they're all distractions, no matter how deep. But yes, the mind will settle, eventually -- the distractions will burn themselves out, as you learn to stop feeding them, and you will reach an at least occasional spacious stillness.
Hi all, just touching base very quickly without having read what everyone else has said yet, my internet access is a bit patchy at the moment. Haven't had time to sit yet today and if it wasn't for this place I probably wouldn't - but it's given me an extra push today (esp so early on in the 100 days!) to escape upstairs in a minute before I eat. Thankyou for all your help with my moving dilemma - feel much clearer about that now. Speak again soon!
Thanks, Jean, for the link to Dharmacrafts' postures page. For those who can't see the entire URL, here's a tiny link to copy & paste:
http://tinyurl.com/8o7df
I'm not officially connected with Dharmacrafts, but I do know the woman who started the company. Whereas a lot of meditation suppliers use unskilled, *free* retreat labor, Dharmacrafts gives their workers a living wage, childcare, and other benefits. They also do social outreach in their community, so they're a *good* company.
If anyone's looking to buy meditation gear, I'd recommend them. That's not an advertisement; that's the testimony of a satisfied longtime customer. :-)
Anna, I'm with Dale when it comes to profound thoughts: they're *all* thoughts. Instead of sitting there trying to sift the profound thoughts from the petty ones, I try to let them all pass like clouds while I return to the breath, return to the breath, return to the breath.
Over & over, I return to the breath each time my mind is distracted, which is A LOT. Each of these "returnings" is a spot of awakening as I realize OOOPS my mind is wandering, turn it back. So there's no shame in distraction as long as you steer yourself (gently!) back, back, back.
If a TRULY profound thought arises during meditation (e.g. a cure for AIDS, the first line of next Great American Novel, etc), it will stick around until after I'm *done* meditating and can write it down. Many of the thoughts that *seem* profound at the time are actually petty, and they thankfully pass.
My sit today was 20 minutes of monkey mind ... a thought flits in here, another thought flits in, and so on and so on
Inhale, exhale, ONE; inhale, exhale TWO ... library books are overdue, back to ONE, TWO, THREE budget needs a good reworking, and so on, you get the idea... will that package of books arrive today?, mail has been slow and sporadic since before Christmas, finish painting the journal entries, buy lentils for the stoop tonight.
Dang ... back to one.
I start my sitting periods by counting breaths ... one to ten. If I lose it before getting to ten, start back again at one. Generally after two or three rounds, I settle in and just sit with my breath and my posture.
Roshi always told us to imagine the thoughts as freight cars passing by ... in between each car/thought is a clear space. Eventually the spaces get larger and the thoughts diminish.
ps ... stoop is thicker than soup and thinner than stew
lorianne, your blog today about Zen is just the very best ... and I do love your goofy hat
looking at the link to Northampton Zen Center, I long for snow. I miss it so and would gladly trade the snowdrops and rhodies any day
fat robin came today to scratch about beside stone Buddha in the small patio garden of my apartment
Janice - I know the feeling!
Thanks Dale and Lorianne. I know I must not fall into my habitual mode of "the right and perfect way" (to self-enlightenment :)).
A Buddhist friend, who chants regularly, once told me that she has made some of her most important decisions through chanting (I'm not exactly sure how Now I come to think of it) and I suppose I have always thought since that through a meditation practice, in the stillness, the space between the monkey mind thoughts, the right path might open itself up to me and I'd know what to do with my life! I know, wrong!
Ok, I'm just going to sit and see.
Anna.
PS. Read my verification oeuzp as "ease up"!
Thanks for your warm welcomes!
It is 22.08 here and bedtime for me and my flewy head. An evening breeze tea and than a first, short sitting on the cushion before I go to sleep. Goodnight.
Yoga. Minimal, due to bursitis. But done. My daily inch, skimped but not neglected.
Thanks.
Welcome, Eileen!
Oh, Zhoen, I'm sorry to hear about the bursitis. I had a nasty bout with it in one elbow a couple years ago. The worst pain I've ever experienced, hands down.
Welcome, Devon, Anna, Eileen! And Siona and Anne-Mieke - how great to see you here!
Postures: I usually sit using the cross-legged posture - the trick for me is to get my seat up high enough so that the knees can fall naturally lower - then it's pretty comfortable. If one leg or foot starts to go to sleep, I can usually relieve the feeling by jiggling it a little, then settling back down. But I have no qualms about meditating sitting in a chair at times, or even lying down. I do think it is important to try to keep the back relatively straight, whatever posture you use, and I try to "correct" that during sitting if I notice I'm slumping or listing!
And I'm with Dale and Lorianne - thoughts are thoughts. What I *do* try to notice afterwards are the general patterns - what do I seem to be returning to, worrying about? Do my thoughts take the from of conversations? Imaginary compositions? Arguments? Lists? Images? Specific people? Those are the kinds of things that help me know myself better. But I try not to do that kind of thinking *while* I'm meditating!
3 days later and I'm still stunned by the number of comments. Look what we've done!
What did we decide about a monthly collective sit? When will the next be?
Busy day today. I'll sit after my daughter's abed.
I came to meditate. I used to belong to a group that studied under a Taoist master and for a year I meditated every morning from 6-7. Amazing things took place. Much time has passed and a friend of mine, Brenda Clews, invited me to join this HUGE -- She never told me it was so huge. I don't do well with huge -- group because I'd like to work on some things this year. And the way I'd like to approach the change is through sitting with some positive intention every day. Just for a short time each day. And I'd like to check in when I'm done. Make myself accountable to you. My name is Prudence.
Welcome Pru!
I think this group has grown exponentially overnight sprouting... how beautiful. How very, very beautiful.
Prudence, I think we'll all a little stunned by the size of this! We rolled along averaging six or seven comments a day, for our last hundred days.
But welcome! I hope & expect, that the atmosphere will stay as "small" and kindly as it has been heretofore. I don't think many of us here *do* think of ourselves as people who do well with huge :-) I'm delighted to have someone with a Taoist background aboard -- I'd been hoping someone would show up who knew that practice tradition. I only know it as literature.
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