Freshness again and again

We are creatures that like to track, mark and delineate time...like dates and schedules; we like to watch the moon and mark as full or new or harvest; we like to mark the beginning of the fall season and the end of summer; we do this over and over again. Each time it is fresh and bright and just so. It becomes tarnished and old and stale only when we make it so...only when we say, "this again!" Here we are rolling into Thanksgiving and soon December...as we mark the end of a year at the end of December it is not too early to encourage ourselves to consider our practice fresh again and again. Considering and setting aside time to sit together, to sit sesshins as often as we able, to sit daily, to practice fresh again and again. To be thankful for this freshness in the mind. Fresh in the dark, fresh in the midday, fresh in the evening, fresh in the night again and again, fresh.

Location, location, location

When we started this 60 day practice, I put my cushions up in the turret in my third floor attic, a lofty romantic perch among the tree tops. But as time went on, I didn't seem to drag myself up there quite as often as I had intended, or our little practice asked of us. After Liz's email with the beginner's tip, I dragged the mat back down stairs and placed it next to the bathroom where I see it first thing in the morning, and last thing before bed. And now I sit again. It's not particularly romantic, but I don't suppose that was the point in the first place.

Practice: Making GREAT effort to study your self, your mind and heart and body and speech and actions

We can only practice where we are; whether we are confused or clear-eyed; whether we flounder in laziness or regret; whether we take each step mindfully or stumble around. Where are you?

Giving a little, a little more and even a little more

This morning I studied a Theravadin writer writng on Generosity; the chapter is titled, "Three Robes is Enough." It is very encouraging to me to read about monastics who forsake and give-up the luxuries of this material world; it isn't that they sometimes are not given luxuries but they don't seek them; it is the seeking and grasping that is renounced. The monastic practice is a light for us all to renounce and let go of the seeking and grasping as in "I just gotta have it."

Also, in the chapter was a sweet inspiration of courage around giving....here it is.

If you have little, give little; if you have a little more, give a little more, if you have even a little more, give even a little more. It is not fitting not to give at all.

Sitting, more sitting

This week there's more open sitting...check it out... www.practiceperiod.blogspot.com
more offering of form...of coming together to sit...

May the merit of our practice help all beings

The next moment is fresh

No matter where you are, what you are up to, the next moment is fresh ready for you to see...
I have delusions of how this practice should go...according to some idea; the idea is spongey soaking up what actually is...I just return to the silence, to the sitting, to the study...encouraging the turn...taking the turn...

MaryAnne Has Arrived

With Dwight's help I have arrived!