Good morning! Sat for 20 minutes this morning, and for 15 last night to make up for not doing the full 20 in the morning. I'm tired and quite stressed by work (9 days in after the long break, and already, aargh...), but do feel I am more able than I used to be to catch myself getting tense and work with it.
MB, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's bad news and am sending you both lots of love.
Beth, oh, I feel for you, that's horrid in the middle of the night. I hope when you sit there on your own in the night worrying you can feel all of us in a gentle circle round you gently murmuring that it will all be ok - MB, I wish that for you too.
Thanks so much Jean - I definitely feel the support of this group and appreciate it. Slept better last night, and meditated for a short while this morning.
home at last, so sat for 20 mins. the neighbour's dog barking was a challenge, but i feel softer around most things these days.
triumph of watching the light fade, listening to J talk about painting, keep sitting at the computer, keep watching the light change, and for the first time felt light and even humourful about it. This is definitely one up on biting my tongue and two up on saying "Didn't you want to paint today darling???" (oh how ghastly I - we? - can be...)
hey this stuff really works!
beth J gets sleepless moments in the middle of the night. He really believes in THE MILKY DRINK! the book sounds very exciting....!!!
Hugs & support to Beth: oooh, mid-night what-if's are no fun. And continued healing energy for mb's friend.
Inspired by Dale's definition of Tibetan accumulation practice, this morning I got off my posterior & resumed bowing practice. Zen bows (prostrations) aren't as rigorous as Tibetan ones: whereas Tibetan practitioners (correct me, Dale, if I'm wrong) stretch out entirely prone on the ground before rising, we Zennies kneel down to a fetal-ball and then rise up.
You can see an illustrated step-by-step description of Zen prostrations here:
http://tinyurl.com/e3kb3
When I lived in a Zen Center, we did 108 bows every morning at 5 am: a great way to both wake up & warm up! But I'm much lazier when it comes to bowing on my own, so I've been needing a good kick in the pants to get going again.
So, this morning I did 27 bows before sitting for 20 minutes. I've learned the hard way that my body complains mightily if I try to do a full 108 bows when I'm out of shape, so I'm trying to ease back into the practice gradually.
I'm always amazed (because somehow I "forget") at how much clearer my sitting meditation is if I do bows before hand. It's as if the physical process of getting the blood moving chases the usual obsessive thoughts away.
So thanks, Dale, for literally getting me off my butt to practice... :-)
interesting, lorraine. I wonder if running can have a similar effect? I do find that i sit better after running - warmed up physically but also centred. I often find that i let go of alot of thought trains while i run, get in touch with breathing and nature, and by the time I get back I feel present and un-itchy.
By the way, I love your "good morning everyone"s. your dry humour and knowledge is a real presence for me here. thank you.
thanks to Lorianne and Dale for the reminders and inspiration to "get up off my butt and resume bowing practice"
108 bows are traditional in our Soto Zen practice as in the Korean ... so I began gingerly this morning to test out my wonky knee, and discovered how to modify the form slightly to accommodate ... ten today and vow to increase ever so slowly and gradually
Funny. We Christians never bow, but prostration is one of the aspects of Muslim prayer I've most enjoyed when joining my friend Shirin for her prayers. Sometimes I 8secretly* do prostrations before or after meditating. Maybe I can feel less weird about that, since everybody here is so open to it!!
Medical appointment this morning went fine - a big relief. Only one more to go, next Wednesday. Should be a routine screening test, but it's yukky, and not over til it's over. But in general, things are looking up!
Ruth, I'm not a runner, so I can't speak with any authority there. I know I sit better after I've walked...but most mornings, I don't have time to walk before sitting.
What I like about bowing is it's *quick*. Once you're in shape, you can do 108 bows in roughly 11 minutes. (I know that figure because when I was the Head Dharma Teacher at the Cambridge Zen Center, I led bows 6 out of 7 mornings, and we literally all bowed together like clockwork!)
So whereas it might take me a half hour or so to "walk myself into" a place where I can practice, it takes 11 minutes of bowing to reach the same point. In my experience, it's a truly *concentrated* practice energy (no pun intended!)
Of course, I should point out that our very own Soen Joon literally wrote the book on bowing practice, which was published under her lay name:
http://tinyurl.com/c5lb2
I'm thinking I should start reading the copy that's been gathering dust on my bookshelf! My main regret from meeting Soen Joon (then Andi) in person last year is I didn't remember to have her sign my copy...
Beth, I'm glad to hear today's appointment went well. And you have my permission as an ecumenical Zennie to do "Christian bows": we won't tell! :-)
hello everyone. Sat this morning about 15 mins after 2 days of not meditating. This 100 days is definitely harder for me than the first one - Dale's word 'mulish' springs to mind as being a good part of the reason but am hanging in there, and still turning up here.
Beth: so very pleased things are looking up. The 'what ifs' in the middle of the night are no fun at all when they come to visit. Glad too that the medical appointment went well.
MB: Still thinking of you and your friend. Love to you both.
Jean: Oh the work stress .... maybe there can be a gentle circle around you too at work ??
Hi all. Good to check in here and see everyone. Bowling. Who'd a thunk it? ;-)
I slept badly, generalized anxiety taking over. It's really a physical thing that settles in, even if initially set off by mental worries. Anyway, meditation this morning for 15 minutes went pretty well considering. Calmer tonight. Took my homeopathic constitutional remedy and I'm hoping it'll set everything back in balance.
Oh, and so glad to hear, Beth, that your appointment went well and that you slept better. Wishing you continued healing. And the same to all of you needing healing or with loved ones needing it. I thought of you all when sitting this morning. Such a supportive group.
:-) Ruth, the first effects of meditation I noticed were things like that. Just letting a few things be that I'd never been able to let alone before.
-- Lorianne, for no particular reason, I've always done my shamatha *before* my prostrations. I'm thinking now I'll experiment with reversing them.
At the end of the ngondro, after dissolving the visualization, we're supposed to sit quietly for a while -- not meditating, they insist, but "resting in the nature of the alaya," whatever that means. (As near as I can tell, what that means is "resting in the nature of the nature of mind." Maybe it loses something in translation.)
It's always a wonderful few moments, extra vivid but extra calm. Then before the thoughts barge in we do the dedication prayers. (I have to move pretty fast sometimes to try to keep ahead of the thoughts :->)
-- Janice, I hear you there. I've had to do a lot of coming to terms with my body not being able to do what it used to.
-- I'm glad, Beth! Keeping my fingers crossed. "May all beings be free of yuckiness and the causes of yuckiness," as we say. (I seem to be on a bit of a roll with free translations, today ;->)
-- Jude, ngondro practice is really very specifically the introductory course for training in the Tibetan Vajrayana practices -- outside that context I don't think it makes any particular sense or would have any particular benefit. Bowing or prostrations in general -- that really depends on whether you have a strong devotional streak. If you do, they can be helpful. If you don't, they're more likely to be just irritating. For a lot of Westerners, especially from Protestant cultures, the idea of them is off-putting or even abhorrent.
MB, sorry to hear about your friend, sending warm heart whole loving kindness healing thoughts...
And Beth too...
I'm still meditating 15 min minimum each day; today though something happened (it was good) and I couldn't settle my mind but later when it was dark I was able to enter intensely in (to whatever state it is :)
Currently I'm working on self/world, aligning disparate parts, like creativity and finances and academe and mothering and the rootlessness I am still living in. I'm working on completing projects. On aligning myself however it is possible to the tao, the flowing love, what the dark radiance is. This around my meditation, which is imageless, thoughtless, soundless except for the simple mantra I intone mentally.
In Sat Nam Rasayan, an ancient healing system, we were taught first to open each of our senses up fully, to hear every sound, sliver of light, sensation on the skin, taste in the mouth. To resist nothing. I do this opening fully to the sensate world but without thought because I don't want to be a disembodied spirit floating over the face of existence when I meditate; perhaps it's the feminist in me that wants to be fully embodied.
Meaning not like the more patristic religions that disavowed the body.
Still, I do have trouble being grounded. It's something I continually work on.
And I wanted to ask what time we are taking as median for updating the day? Sometimes I'm up in the middle of the night and turn the computer on, and could post the new day...? It would be, say, 3 or 4am EST. I couldn't commit to it since I really am trying to learn how to sleep through the night, or at least for a 5 or 6 hour stretch. But I'd like to help out...
15 Comments:
Good morning! Sat for 20 minutes this morning, and for 15 last night to make up for not doing the full 20 in the morning. I'm tired and quite stressed by work (9 days in after the long break, and already, aargh...), but do feel I am more able than I used to be to catch myself getting tense and work with it.
MB, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's bad news and am sending you both lots of love.
Beth, oh, I feel for you, that's horrid in the middle of the night. I hope when you sit there on your own in the night worrying you can feel all of us in a gentle circle round you gently murmuring that it will all be ok - MB, I wish that for you too.
mb, I am sending everything I can muster the way of you and your friend.xxx
Thanks so much Jean - I definitely feel the support of this group and appreciate it. Slept better last night, and meditated for a short while this morning.
home at last, so sat for 20 mins. the neighbour's dog barking was a challenge, but i feel softer around most things these days.
triumph of watching the light fade, listening to J talk about painting, keep sitting at the computer, keep watching the light change, and for the first time felt light and even humourful about it. This is definitely one up on biting my tongue and two up on saying "Didn't you want to paint today darling???" (oh how ghastly I - we? - can be...)
hey this stuff really works!
beth J gets sleepless moments in the middle of the night. He really believes in THE MILKY DRINK! the book sounds very exciting....!!!
Good morning, everyone!
Hugs & support to Beth: oooh, mid-night what-if's are no fun. And continued healing energy for mb's friend.
Inspired by Dale's definition of Tibetan accumulation practice, this morning I got off my posterior & resumed bowing practice. Zen bows (prostrations) aren't as rigorous as Tibetan ones: whereas Tibetan practitioners (correct me, Dale, if I'm wrong) stretch out entirely prone on the ground before rising, we Zennies kneel down to a fetal-ball and then rise up.
You can see an illustrated step-by-step description of Zen prostrations here:
http://tinyurl.com/e3kb3
When I lived in a Zen Center, we did 108 bows every morning at 5 am: a great way to both wake up & warm up! But I'm much lazier when it comes to bowing on my own, so I've been needing a good kick in the pants to get going again.
So, this morning I did 27 bows before sitting for 20 minutes. I've learned the hard way that my body complains mightily if I try to do a full 108 bows when I'm out of shape, so I'm trying to ease back into the practice gradually.
I'm always amazed (because somehow I "forget") at how much clearer my sitting meditation is if I do bows before hand. It's as if the physical process of getting the blood moving chases the usual obsessive thoughts away.
So thanks, Dale, for literally getting me off my butt to practice... :-)
interesting, lorraine. I wonder if running can have a similar effect? I do find that i sit better after running - warmed up physically but also centred. I often find that i let go of alot of thought trains while i run, get in touch with breathing and nature, and by the time I get back I feel present and un-itchy.
By the way, I love your "good morning everyone"s. your dry humour and knowledge is a real presence for me here. thank you.
thanks to Lorianne and Dale for the reminders and inspiration to "get up off my butt and resume bowing practice"
108 bows are traditional in our Soto Zen practice as in the Korean ... so I began gingerly this morning to test out my wonky knee, and discovered how to modify the form slightly to accommodate ... ten today and vow to increase ever so slowly and gradually
Funny. We Christians never bow, but prostration is one of the aspects of Muslim prayer I've most enjoyed when joining my friend Shirin for her prayers. Sometimes I 8secretly* do prostrations before or after meditating. Maybe I can feel less weird about that, since everybody here is so open to it!!
Medical appointment this morning went fine - a big relief. Only one more to go, next Wednesday. Should be a routine screening test, but it's yukky, and not over til it's over. But in general, things are looking up!
Ruth, I'm not a runner, so I can't speak with any authority there. I know I sit better after I've walked...but most mornings, I don't have time to walk before sitting.
What I like about bowing is it's *quick*. Once you're in shape, you can do 108 bows in roughly 11 minutes. (I know that figure because when I was the Head Dharma Teacher at the Cambridge Zen Center, I led bows 6 out of 7 mornings, and we literally all bowed together like clockwork!)
So whereas it might take me a half hour or so to "walk myself into" a place where I can practice, it takes 11 minutes of bowing to reach the same point. In my experience, it's a truly *concentrated* practice energy (no pun intended!)
Of course, I should point out that our very own Soen Joon literally wrote the book on bowing practice, which was published under her lay name:
http://tinyurl.com/c5lb2
I'm thinking I should start reading the copy that's been gathering dust on my bookshelf! My main regret from meeting Soen Joon (then Andi) in person last year is I didn't remember to have her sign my copy...
Beth, I'm glad to hear today's appointment went well. And you have my permission as an ecumenical Zennie to do "Christian bows": we won't tell! :-)
hello everyone. Sat this morning about 15 mins after 2 days of not meditating. This 100 days is definitely harder for me than the first one - Dale's word 'mulish' springs to mind as being a good part of the reason but am hanging in there, and still turning up here.
Beth: so very pleased things are looking up. The 'what ifs' in the middle of the night are no fun at all when they come to visit. Glad too that the medical appointment went well.
MB: Still thinking of you and your friend. Love to you both.
Jean: Oh the work stress .... maybe there can be a gentle circle around you too at work ??
Hi all. Good to check in here and see everyone. Bowling. Who'd a thunk it? ;-)
I slept badly, generalized anxiety taking over. It's really a physical thing that settles in, even if initially set off by mental worries. Anyway, meditation this morning for 15 minutes went pretty well considering. Calmer tonight. Took my homeopathic constitutional remedy and I'm hoping it'll set everything back in balance.
Oh, and so glad to hear, Beth, that your appointment went well and that you slept better. Wishing you continued healing. And the same to all of you needing healing or with loved ones needing it. I thought of you all when sitting this morning. Such a supportive group.
{{{Jean}}}
:-) Ruth, the first effects of meditation I noticed were things like that. Just letting a few things be that I'd never been able to let alone before.
-- Lorianne, for no particular reason, I've always done my shamatha *before* my prostrations. I'm thinking now I'll experiment with reversing them.
At the end of the ngondro, after dissolving the visualization, we're supposed to sit quietly for a while -- not meditating, they insist, but "resting in the nature of the alaya," whatever that means. (As near as I can tell, what that means is "resting in the nature of the nature of mind." Maybe it loses something in translation.)
It's always a wonderful few moments, extra vivid but extra calm. Then before the thoughts barge in we do the dedication prayers. (I have to move pretty fast sometimes to try to keep ahead of the thoughts :->)
-- Janice, I hear you there. I've had to do a lot of coming to terms with my body not being able to do what it used to.
-- I'm glad, Beth! Keeping my fingers crossed. "May all beings be free of yuckiness and the causes of yuckiness," as we say. (I seem to be on a bit of a roll with free translations, today ;->)
-- Jude, ngondro practice is really very specifically the introductory course for training in the Tibetan Vajrayana practices -- outside that context I don't think it makes any particular sense or would have any particular benefit. Bowing or prostrations in general -- that really depends on whether you have a strong devotional streak. If you do, they can be helpful. If you don't, they're more likely to be just irritating. For a lot of Westerners, especially from Protestant cultures, the idea of them is off-putting or even abhorrent.
---{{{Leslie}}}
MB, sorry to hear about your friend, sending warm heart whole loving kindness healing thoughts...
And Beth too...
I'm still meditating 15 min minimum each day; today though something happened (it was good) and I couldn't settle my mind but later when it was dark I was able to enter intensely in (to whatever state it is :)
Currently I'm working on self/world, aligning disparate parts, like creativity and finances and academe and mothering and the rootlessness I am still living in. I'm working on completing projects. On aligning myself however it is possible to the tao, the flowing love, what the dark radiance is. This around my meditation, which is imageless, thoughtless, soundless except for the simple mantra I intone mentally.
In Sat Nam Rasayan, an ancient healing system, we were taught first to open each of our senses up fully, to hear every sound, sliver of light, sensation on the skin, taste in the mouth. To resist nothing. I do this opening fully to the sensate world but without thought because I don't want to be a disembodied spirit floating over the face of existence when I meditate; perhaps it's the feminist in me that wants to be fully embodied.
Meaning not like the more patristic religions that disavowed the body.
Still, I do have trouble being grounded. It's something I continually work on.
And I wanted to ask what time we are taking as median for updating the day? Sometimes I'm up in the middle of the night and turn the computer on, and could post the new day...? It would be, say, 3 or 4am EST. I couldn't commit to it since I really am trying to learn how to sleep through the night, or at least for a 5 or 6 hour stretch. But I'd like to help out...
xo
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