I was going to sit tonight, but it is too late and I need to start getting to bed earlier, not using constructed parameters as rigid requirements that result in poor self care. Things I did today: Nearly burned the house down (it’s fine; everything’s fine) Got mad at the Read more…
Today’s slogan is, In postmeditation, be a child of illusion. This is slogan number six, because I completely skipped the first one. I read all about it and then promptly absorbed it as something other than a slogan: First, train in the preliminaries. That is really what I am doing Read more…
Today I spent much of the day repping my March Shredness essay, trying to “win.” This goes against what I read today, but Pema Chödrön stresses the need to lighten up, so I will go easy on myself for still having ego and attachment to my writing. The first slogan, Read more…
Yesterday and today I read from Pema Chödrön’s Start Where You Are. She is an American Buddhist nun, and she founded a Tibetan monastery in Nova Scotia for Westerners. The first chapters of Pema’s book deal with bodhicitta, the awakened/saddened heart, and the beginnings of tonglen meditation, which has as Read more…
My days are too full of useless tasks and not full enough of those I need. Im going to bed too late and not sitting, tonight I read about and then listened to a talk on tonglen, or loving kindness. More tomorrow.
I’d put something off for awhile, and today I finally had to knuckle down and spend 3 dumb hours on it, that I could have spent doing innumerable other, more pleasant things. Now it is late, and I have not made time to exercise or meditate. Some days just get Read more…
Today I read a chapter on Dhamma-Vinaya (The Doctrine and Discipline) in the Theravada tradition. The book is called The State of Mind Called Beautiful by Sayadaw U Pandita. After the intro, the first topics covered are the four protective meditations. The first protective meditation is Buddhanussati, or recollecting the Read more…
Remember when ten percent of the year came rushing up? And now it seems to be taking forever to get to twenty. Today, the insulators came to assess the job site for next Tuesday’s crawlspace redux. Then the arborist came with a quote on removing the dramatically leaning digger pine. Read more…
Vipassana means “to see things as they really are.” According to dhamma.org, Vipassana is …a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and Read more…
Today was the first day that I didn’t have to grade anything since January 8th or so. It has made me really think about whether or not I want to teach. The extra money is very useful, but I can’t really say we need it. Who the fuck am I Read more…