Time: 9:08am
What: 20 minutes seated practice
Focus: Second Foundation / Exercises 11 - 12 (Sati-)
Physical: of or relating to the body
Physiological: relating to the functions or processes of an organism or its parts
Psychological: directed toward the will, mind, or behaviour
Realized that the discomfort that arises towards the end of practice is a great time to explore unpleasant feeling. Remain still. Don't check the clock. Pay attention and watch the turbulence of aversion. Feels unusual, even counter-instinctual, to explore the root of an unpleasant feeling instead of lean/run away from it. I know that this realization isn't much of a realization (Duh! What do you think practice is?! Ha ha...) but I felt all of a sudden really tuned into the purpose of exercises 11 & 12. A little wake-up... Oh yeah! It's good when practice/life isn't totally peachy all the time - so much to learn in the layers and variations of experience!
P.S. I heart Fall. We don't even have leaves turning yet, and I'm excited! The coziness of woolly sweaters, the colour grey, the crispness in the air, the smell of wood stoves, and that wet earthiness Everyone - plants, animals, bugs, people alike - are all preparing for the long winter. Harvest spirit. Celebration in the air. And it's almost Halloween.... Eeeeeeeeeeee!
1 comment:
"Feels unusual, even counter-instinctual, to explore the root of an unpleasant feeling instead of lean/run away from it."
YUP! I think it's probably a good thing to remind ourselves periodically that this is WHY the Buddha said practice (the practice of awakening) goes against the stream...
It goes against the stream of ALL our conditioning, from the biological, through the social and cultural.
Monica and I finished our week at Kripalu (where the leaves were already beginning to change) with a night in my old stomping grounds in the Hudson Valley (pumpkin/butternut squash soup for dinner; pumpkin pancakes for breakfast).
Now for some autumnal fun in the Big Apple!!!
Oh, yeah, we picked some of the crispest, juiciest apples ever in the Hudson Valley!!!!
LOVE FALL!!!!
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