Hello all - surprised that I'm the first to comment today! Haven't been meditating every day :( Sat last thing at night a couple of times last week but I find that the urge to get UNDER the duvet, where my wonderful hot water bottle is waiting, is TOO much, so I've abandoned that. I tried also to meditate actually lying down in bed, but that's a no-no as I just wander quickly towards sleep oblivion. I've decided to set a time after breakfast. I've decided that, for me, actually setting a time is the way forward.
Lorianne, thanks for reminding us/me to follow the breath and observe the present moment - I find that simple to remember, albeit hard to do! What is helping me is that my yoga classes have started again (Monday and Wednesday night) and we meditate at the end of the class. It feels good. Anna.
I didn't sit this morning, but I have yoga tonight so I'm going to let that count! I will make a special effort to *not* spend the ending savasana thinking and planning as I usually end up doing, and instead do a meditation. Our instructor also usually leads a brief meditation at the end. It does feel good.
mb thanks for the link! very exciting to see it in Time magazine!
I sat thismorning for 20 mins for the first time in a few days. I am increasingly aware that often I am straining my mind to focus or stay still when infact it is so much gentler; a release as opposed to a stretch. I have a few isolated moments of such gentle presence, and it is so beautiful but my mind comes right in and analyzes the feeling and immediately I'm straining again! aaaargh!
also had a beautiful run right afterwards, feeling very present and joyful with the trees and birds around the lake.
There is a big problem in the show with one of oour colleagues who is incredibly negative. I watch my habitual urge to enter into negativity with her sometimes. Then I watch myself choose not to and stay with my breath. Then I return my focus to a movement on stage or a sound or a prop and try just to observe what's going on without judgement. This practice seems to pass the time!
mb, the Time article brings us back to Alan Wallace, the writer on meditation whom Dale recommended during the last 100 days. Alan Davidson, mentioned in the article, is one of his collaborators in the regular meetings between the Dalai Lama, scientists and other academics, looking at the intersections of Western science and psychology and buddhism and how they can inform each other. Exciting branches of this research going on in a number of venues. I recently read an excellent book by Daniel Goleman, which is a detailed report of one of the meetings with the Dalai Lama a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much - Alan Davidson features in that.
Jean & others, the place to go to make tiny links is
http://tinyurl.com/
If you give them a long webaddress, they'll give you a short address that forwards to the former.
Tuesday is a teaching day, so I got up at 5 am WITHOUT MY ALARM (which I'd actually forgot to set!!!) and did 54 bows first thing, then 20 minutes sitting afterward.
Yikes, I'm glad my Inner Buddha nudged me awake in time to practice, get ready, etc. It's really embarrassing if you forget to set your alarm & then are late to your own 8am class...
I love the way yoga & most yoga classes integrate movement & meditation: it most certainly "counts" as practice!
In the fall, I started going to a Wednesday night yoga class I really liked, then I fell completely off the wagon around Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to repair that commitment over the next few weeks...
This morning I walked in the rain, a gentle rain. We get a lot of that here in the Pacific Northwest. Salal bushes and sword ferns look especially fresh and glossy. A mini-population of small winter birds gather here … a small murmur of twittering conversation. I sat on a dry stump in a sheltered spot for a few minutes and opened my ears and my heart.
Walking back home, I thought of you, Jean. I think you get a lot of rain too. Are you able to manage your four miles in the rain?
mb – brownies and menahune. This is just way too funny. Your are very astute. Indeed, menahune is a Hawaiian word for elf or leprechaun. It’s a nickname Roshi gave me when I was working as his house attendant. I had no idea these house spirits were also known as brownies in other lands and cultures. When I think of brownies, I see rich dark chocolate cookies, junior Girl Scouts or antique box cameras.
After googling, I learn they are known in Spain as duende, in Germany as hausmanner, in Russia, and Finland and Cambodia. Harry Potter has a house elf too, so I’m in good company
on my PictureTrail account it’s just a username, no reference to the albums … there are so many accounts on PictureTrail that it’s tough finding one not in use.
Good evening, all. Thanks for the link to that Time article, very interesting and encouraging.
Just had a very calm and easy 20 minute sit, quite surprising myself. The change was in following rather than fighting my ... nearly said "thoughts" but it is really an image that came to mind, not a thought as such.
I mentioned before that as well as the constant running-off-at-tangents of my hamster mind, I also see random memories while sitting. This evening I remembered sitting by an open window in my parents' house in Toronto, many decades ago, late on a hot summer night; listening to the lawn sprinkler and feeling a very gentle & slow flow of air through the screen door across my face; I was the last person awake in the house and the neighbourhood was still. It was a moment of absolute calm and contentment.
I'd been reading the Dalai Lama on "How to practice" (yes, I know: Type A gotta-get-it-right :-) and remembered the idea of meditating on an image, and so decided to hold this memory in mind, and see whether I could consciously relive the feelings and the sensory impressions of that moment: the sound, the warmth, the breeze.
Well, it may not be "meditation" but it sure worked. It was wonderful, I feel marvellously peaceful, as though I'd been washed clean of all sorts of mental grime. I shall sleep well tonight.
And now, as Leslee said of her crying session, I really have to ask: Does this count?
15 Comments:
Hello all - surprised that I'm the first to comment today! Haven't been meditating every day :(
Sat last thing at night a couple of times last week but I find that the urge to get UNDER the duvet, where my wonderful hot water bottle is waiting, is TOO much, so I've abandoned that. I tried also to meditate actually lying down in bed, but that's a no-no as I just wander quickly towards sleep oblivion. I've decided to set a time after breakfast. I've decided that, for me, actually setting a time is the way forward.
Lorianne, thanks for reminding us/me to follow the breath and observe the present moment - I find that simple to remember, albeit hard to do! What is helping me is that my yoga classes have started again (Monday and Wednesday night) and we meditate at the end of the class. It feels good.
Anna.
Anna, I appreciate my yoga class much more since I'm sitting regularly again - it's nice.
Sat first thing - under the duvet, as it happens, it got much colder overnight :-)
Here's a tiny url to an article about study of meditation:
http://tinyurl.com/8ygb7
Didn't sleep now, but one of the things the study says is that meditation works better than a nap. Off to sit now.
Um, I meant "didn't sleep well."
Evidently.
I didn't sit this morning, but I have yoga tonight so I'm going to let that count! I will make a special effort to *not* spend the ending savasana thinking and planning as I usually end up doing, and instead do a meditation. Our instructor also usually leads a brief meditation at the end. It does feel good.
Best to all of you today.
mb thanks for the link! very exciting to see it in Time magazine!
I sat thismorning for 20 mins for the first time in a few days. I am increasingly aware that often I am straining my mind to focus or stay still when infact it is so much gentler; a release as opposed to a stretch. I have a few isolated moments of such gentle presence, and it is so beautiful but my mind comes right in and analyzes the feeling and immediately I'm straining again! aaaargh!
also had a beautiful run right afterwards, feeling very present and joyful with the trees and birds around the lake.
There is a big problem in the show with one of oour colleagues who is incredibly negative. I watch my habitual urge to enter into negativity with her sometimes. Then I watch myself choose not to and stay with my breath. Then I return my focus to a movement on stage or a sound or a prop and try just to observe what's going on without judgement. This practice seems to pass the time!
mb, the Time article brings us back to Alan Wallace, the writer on meditation whom Dale recommended during the last 100 days. Alan Davidson, mentioned in the article, is one of his collaborators in the regular meetings between the Dalai Lama, scientists and other academics, looking at the intersections of Western science and psychology and buddhism and how they can inform each other. Exciting branches of this research going on in a number of venues. I recently read an excellent book by Daniel Goleman, which is a detailed report of one of the meetings with the Dalai Lama a few years ago, and enjoyed it very much - Alan Davidson features in that.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553801716/qid=1138123468/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1831559-1064637?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
can someone tell me how to make a tinylink?
I mean Richard Davidson
Jean & others, the place to go to make tiny links is
http://tinyurl.com/
If you give them a long webaddress, they'll give you a short address that forwards to the former.
Tuesday is a teaching day, so I got up at 5 am WITHOUT MY ALARM (which I'd actually forgot to set!!!) and did 54 bows first thing, then 20 minutes sitting afterward.
Yikes, I'm glad my Inner Buddha nudged me awake in time to practice, get ready, etc. It's really embarrassing if you forget to set your alarm & then are late to your own 8am class...
PS to Anna, Jean, Leslee, and other yogis...
I love the way yoga & most yoga classes integrate movement & meditation: it most certainly "counts" as practice!
In the fall, I started going to a Wednesday night yoga class I really liked, then I fell completely off the wagon around Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to repair that commitment over the next few weeks...
This morning I walked in the rain, a gentle rain. We get a lot of that here in the Pacific Northwest. Salal bushes and sword ferns look especially fresh and glossy. A mini-population of small winter birds gather here … a small murmur of twittering conversation. I sat on a dry stump in a sheltered spot for a few minutes and opened my ears and my heart.
Walking back home, I thought of you, Jean. I think you get a lot of rain too. Are you able to manage your four miles in the rain?
mb – brownies and menahune. This is just way too funny. Your are very astute. Indeed, menahune is a Hawaiian word for elf or leprechaun. It’s a nickname Roshi gave me when I was working as his house attendant. I had no idea these house spirits were also known as brownies in other lands and cultures. When I think of brownies, I see rich dark chocolate cookies, junior Girl Scouts or antique box cameras.
After googling, I learn they are known in Spain as duende, in Germany as hausmanner, in Russia, and Finland and Cambodia. Harry Potter has a house elf too, so I’m in good company
on my PictureTrail account it’s just a username, no reference to the albums … there are so many accounts on PictureTrail that it’s tough finding one not in use.
That's not me, it's Janice impersonating me :-)
Jean - you see how much I'm thinking of you?
I signed my name as Jean on that last post because I'd just been reading your comments
good heavens, yesterday I misread Heart Chakra as Heart Sutra and misinterpreted mb's "brownie pictures"
I took it as an exercise in the emptiness of self :-)
Good evening, all. Thanks for the link to that Time article, very interesting and encouraging.
Just had a very calm and easy 20 minute sit, quite surprising myself. The change was in following rather than fighting my ... nearly said "thoughts" but it is really an image that came to mind, not a thought as such.
I mentioned before that as well as the constant running-off-at-tangents of my hamster mind, I also see random memories while sitting. This evening I remembered sitting by an open window in my parents' house in Toronto, many decades ago, late on a hot summer night; listening to the lawn sprinkler and feeling a very gentle & slow flow of air through the screen door across my face; I was the last person awake in the house and the neighbourhood was still. It was a moment of absolute calm and contentment.
I'd been reading the Dalai Lama on "How to practice" (yes, I know: Type A gotta-get-it-right :-) and remembered the idea of meditating on an image, and so decided to hold this memory in mind, and see whether I could consciously relive the feelings and the sensory impressions of that moment: the sound, the warmth, the breeze.
Well, it may not be "meditation" but it sure worked. It was wonderful, I feel marvellously peaceful, as though I'd been washed clean of all sorts of mental grime. I shall sleep well tonight.
And now, as Leslee said of her crying session, I really have to ask: Does this count?
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