Fortune Cookie

I thought I'd post this here as it's mildly relevant, and well, it did make me think of practice:

Only when free from projections,
we can be away of reality

How unusually informative for a fortune cookie!

Meditation

We have been trying to find a way to get to a Gong meditation near us. It's in Wilmington, DE, which is about an hour's drive.

I learned today that Ginseng Yoga in San Diego, my haunt of choice is now offering a Gong meditation session once a week.

I cannot express how much I want to be out of my current locality and out there. There is so little room in my life for any practice right now, it's embarrassing.

Whilst it's true that practice can be had anywhere if you want it, it is also true that practice is easier when barriers to it are removed.

Transcend

I will today try to take to heart one of the messages I see in the heart sutra (general thought paraphrase):

Form is empty, and emptiness is form, there is no coming, no going, no understanding, no attainments. Dwell rather in the perfection of wisdom and go beyond, go beyond to the other shore which is enlightenment.

I try to allow the façade of the five skandhas to drop away, and place my mind above, and know that this is all part of my bigger journey through samsara, which ultimately, is empty.

For a novice like me, it's pretty damn hard, but here and there I manage to step outside of it for at least a moment or two.

August 21st, 2011

I'm traveling to San diego at the moment, but in some ways is gives me a bit more time than usual.

On the flight I started to read "Turning the Mind into an Ally" by Sakyong Mipham.

It is awesome. It's already explained a few things in a new way that really resonated with me, so that's pretty exciting.

There is a shambhala center here in San Diego, so I'm hoping to make it to at least one or two sessions this week.

August 19th, 2011

I walked this afternoon and listened to Pema Chodron. She's really awesome. I don't find her talks as engaging as Thich Nhat Hanh, but her content is really good. I loved this one: "Being harsh on yourself for [having strong emotions] is like criticizing the sky for having clouds."
30 minutes later I feel much better, probably a combination of the walking and the Pema Chodron.

It doesn't count as meditation practice, but at least it's Dharma practice.

Thursday, Aug 18th

Looks like I missed yesterday and didn't even realize. I didn't do practice today, but I did at least listen to some more of Pema Chodrons book whilst I was walking this morning. It was hard to stay focused on it though, but it felt like it was overall helpfull. I keep ending up going over bits again anyway just as a function of listening to it on multiple devices.

San Diego next week, I've checked up on times that the Shambhala center is open and has meditation. Not as much as I'd like, but probably more than I'll end up getting to.

August 16th, 2011

No practice today so far. Maybe I should come up with a concrete plan to get myself back on the cushion. I feel like there are lots of reasons swirling around in my head why I can't, but I've not bothered to sit down and work through them.