it was good to hear you all chirp up in favour of keeping going!
some interesting stuff, and thank you beth for mentioning brenda whom i think about often. I think you might have a very good point about the energy and a lingering sense of guilt. I certainly feel that and at the same time i felt a bit manipulated by her sudden departure. One thing is for sure, this still feels unresolved.
I am glad you mentioned the importance of the personal too. The more I think about it the more I agree about how profound this link between our practice and our personal lives has been. I am thinking of course of all you shared about your mother this year.
Julian and I are looking into different possibilities here. I really love the idea of having a forum where someone puts up a postwhen they feel like it, and thereafter there can be threads. One would have to create a log in but it would be open to everyone. It would take the pressure off the every day thing and my thought about that is that that part of 100 days may have served its purpose - like the initial discpline needed in weightwatchers to speak from my experience of my current struggle! - and that now we just need to maintain the energy and the practice. I also like the idea of guest writers - people whom we meet and ask to write a short piece - in order to keep injecting new energy and ideas.
Another point J mentions is that because the titles of each post are just so and so a day, the site and the issues that come up in it won't come up in search engines and we will not be attracting new people.
The multi faith thing is REALLY important to me and beth I was sad when you said you didn't feel so able to write about your prayer practice. I have always loved it when you do. It gives such a sense of oneness. For some it is nature or music or yoga or photography which provides the link to a spiritual part of their lives, or even just a quiet place, and therefore to a meditative one.
The other thing I wanted to say is that I still think this thing is sort of bigger than us. I don't want it to continue just for me but for it to exist in the world. It is a very beautiful beast!
Hello all...I am checking in after a week of hiking in the Arizona desert amid sunshine, surreal landforms, and moonscapes; back to subzero temperatures and some nice snow here.
MB, I send warm and healing thoughts to you with your shoulder problem. I so hope it is resolved very soon indeed.
Jean, it's good that you suggested bringing 100 Days to a close, because it has generated some very interesting and useful discussion about the mission of the site. You called the question! And Jean, thank you for your faithfulness in carrying 100 Days forward while several of us have been in our recent lull.
My own response to your question, Jean: I am another who would be very sorry to see 100 Days phase out. It has been important to me since right around the first Day 40.
Like others, I haven't been sure what to post, as I wasn't sure if the focus was supposed to be primarily about one's personal interaction with practice or whether I could/should provide links to other sites (i.e. non-Buddhist) that have been helpful to me in the design of an active practice and spiritual life. Some of the links Jean has provided have been fascinating to me; for some reason I have been hesitant to provide links and references myself. Maybe it's the shyness thing and feeling unsure about whether the focus would be appropriate.
My own daily meditation practice is rather pedestrian, so there's not much to say about it; it's the effect on my inner life that has been so dramatic for me. It's very difficult for me to formulate this effect into narrative; my joy in life is much more readily expressed through photography and poetry.
That said, I value greatly the eloquent personal narratives offered here. And as I have said before, the compassionate response that occurs whenever someone has an issue or problem is wonderful to me. On the question of having done something "wrong:" I would like to say that, as a regular reader of the site since the first 100 days, my perspective as an independent observer is that this responsiveness has been very consistent. It seems to me that the original members of the site have never been less than welcoming to everyone who has joined in the discussion.
I suspect that part of the reason for our lull is that some of us are in the somewhat suspended spiritual state produced by darkness, cold, and dreariness. Beth's recent question about this was much to the point.
Ruth has made some interesting suggestions about what to do going forward. One thought I have is that we could bring to this gathering place other crystals of relevant thought or imagery that we find elsewhere. For example, there are some people who don't post here whose blogs I have encountered in your own link lists. Some of their posts (I'm thinking of Paula's House of Toast as an example) are haunting and beautiful, but in ways that are different from the Buddhist perspective. Or I'd love to post in 100 Days certain lines from MB's poetry, which I read every day.
If folks agree to go forward with 100 Days, and feel that the above suggestion is acceptable, this might be a way to make a contribution when the muse about one's own practice is silent.
I'd like to thank everyone for coming this far down the road with 100 Days. I read your blogs faithfully and regard you as friends.
2 Comments:
it was good to hear you all chirp up in favour of keeping going!
some interesting stuff, and thank you beth for mentioning brenda whom i think about often. I think you might have a very good point about the energy and a lingering sense of guilt. I certainly feel that and at the same time i felt a bit manipulated by her sudden departure. One thing is for sure, this still feels unresolved.
I am glad you mentioned the importance of the personal too. The more I think about it the more I agree about how profound this link between our practice and our personal lives has been. I am thinking of course of all you shared about your mother this year.
Julian and I are looking into different possibilities here. I really love the idea of having a forum where someone puts up a postwhen they feel like it, and thereafter there can be threads. One would have to create a log in but it would be open to everyone. It would take the pressure off the every day thing and my thought about that is that that part of 100 days may have served its purpose - like the initial discpline needed in weightwatchers to speak from my experience of my current struggle! - and that now we just need to maintain the energy and the practice. I also like the idea of guest writers - people whom we meet and ask to write a short piece - in order to keep injecting new energy and ideas.
Another point J mentions is that because the titles of each post are just so and so a day, the site and the issues that come up in it won't come up in search engines and we will not be attracting new people.
The multi faith thing is REALLY important to me and beth I was sad when you said you didn't feel so able to write about your prayer practice. I have always loved it when you do. It gives such a sense of oneness. For some it is nature or music or yoga or photography which provides the link to a spiritual part of their lives, or even just a quiet place, and therefore to a meditative one.
The other thing I wanted to say is that I still think this thing is sort of bigger than us. I don't want it to continue just for me but for it to exist in the world. It is a very beautiful beast!
Hello all...I am checking in after a week of hiking in the Arizona desert amid sunshine, surreal landforms, and moonscapes; back to subzero temperatures and some nice snow here.
MB, I send warm and healing thoughts to you with your shoulder problem. I so hope it is resolved very soon indeed.
Jean, it's good that you suggested bringing 100 Days to a close, because it has generated some very interesting and useful discussion about the mission of the site. You called the question! And Jean, thank you for your faithfulness in carrying 100 Days forward while several of us have been in our recent lull.
My own response to your question, Jean: I am another who would be very sorry to see 100 Days phase out. It has been important to me since right around the first Day 40.
Like others, I haven't been sure what to post, as I wasn't sure if the focus was supposed to be primarily about one's personal interaction with practice or whether I could/should provide links to other sites (i.e. non-Buddhist) that have been helpful to me in the design of an active practice and spiritual life. Some of the links Jean has provided have been fascinating to me; for some reason I have been hesitant to provide links and references myself. Maybe it's the shyness thing and feeling unsure about whether the focus would be appropriate.
My own daily meditation practice is rather pedestrian, so there's not much to say about it; it's the effect on my inner life that has been so dramatic for me. It's very difficult for me to formulate this effect into narrative; my joy in life is much more readily expressed through photography and poetry.
That said, I value greatly the eloquent personal narratives offered here. And as I have said before, the compassionate response that occurs whenever someone has an issue or problem is wonderful to me. On the question of having done something "wrong:" I would like to say that, as a regular reader of the site since the first 100 days, my perspective as an independent observer is that this responsiveness has been very consistent. It seems to me that the original members of the site have never been less than welcoming to everyone who has joined in the discussion.
I suspect that part of the reason for our lull is that some of us are in the somewhat suspended spiritual state produced by darkness, cold, and dreariness. Beth's recent question about this was much to the point.
Ruth has made some interesting suggestions about what to do going forward. One thought I have is that we could bring to this gathering place other crystals of relevant thought or imagery that we find elsewhere. For example, there are some people who don't post here whose blogs I have encountered in your own link lists. Some of their posts (I'm thinking of Paula's House of Toast as an example) are haunting and beautiful, but in ways that are different from the Buddhist perspective. Or I'd love to post in 100 Days certain lines from MB's poetry, which I read every day.
If folks agree to go forward with 100 Days, and feel that the above suggestion is acceptable, this might be a way to make a contribution when the muse about one's own practice is silent.
I'd like to thank everyone for coming this far down the road with 100 Days. I read your blogs faithfully and regard you as friends.
Post a Comment
<< Home