"never leave home without Betty & Pansy"!

Time: 7:40am
What: 25 minutes asana / 20 minutes seated practice
Focus: First Foundation / Exercises 9 - 10 (Sati-)

I've decided I'm going to hang out with Richard Freeman (in dvd form) for awhile. Practiced up to and including Parivritta Trikonasana. Primary Series, anyone?

Practiced visualization of the decomposition of the body in savasana. I am really appreciating this format. I find it helpful to visualize being a corpse while lying in corpse pose. Versus visualizing the process of dying while sitting. During the seated version of this practice, I felt detached from the visual of the rotting body. In corpse pose, the visualization in superimposed onto the current experience of the body. I can get down and dirty into the experience (yum... sort of... ha ha).

I remember reading an article disapproving of the Zombie Walk. The Zombie Walk happens each year in Toronto during the month of October (and at other times/places around the world). People dress up in various degrees of decomposition and walk around the streets moaning and groaning. My gf and I are big fans. Anyways... The article did not appreciate the glorification of death (in their words) or the goriness of the event. The comments on the article were from participants in the walk that began discussing how the Zombie Walk was a way of accepting death, of facing the reality of dying, and of having a little fun with it. Buddhist practice??

Sitting this morning - focus on exercise 10 - included tight chest and a sore, dry throat. Sat with palms facing upwards to encourage a sense of lightness and openness. Mind was busy and blowing about. Despite the discomfort in breathing, there was a background feeling of calm and contentment. Santosha. Nothing wrong. Good, bad, comfortable, uncomfortable, content.