Interesting times
I hope nobody is horribly disappointed that I'm not pursuing the Tao as much as I implied at the beginning.
Did an interesting meditation today, even though I did interrupt it to do something necessary.
I'm doing my mantra still, though I substituted "steadfastness" for "compassion". What is the difference between compassion and loving-kindness anyway? To me the latter sounds more like something you do with what you feel, whereas compassion can be completely internal.
My daughter is collecting these sort of pagan cards. I'm not sure what exactly you're supposed to do with them but most read like fortune cookies and so (with her permission) I pretty much use them the same way. I have no belief in the supernatural other than to say I'm too scientifically minded to discount what I don't know. Still, sometimes you get interesting inspirations from them. :)
Tonight I drew from her animal deck, which is fun, and then noticed one that seemed more witchy. I had a card drop in my lap while I was shuffling (this isn't eery in any way, the cards are hugely unwieldy and I'm not much of a shuffler) and I drew one off the top anyway, so I had three cards plus my mantra to meditate on.
Why bore you with this?
Well, the draw card was "winter solstice" which the booklet saw as an opourtunity to reflect on the past and the lessons learned therein. as well winter solstice is the longest night of the year and when we either cower in fear or start running about with fire and bellowing to the sun to come back and start doing it's job already! Well, ok, in Canada we mostly run about with beer, but fireworks work too.
One of the Big lessons I have learned in the past bit is related to the animal card I drew. The Blue Heron (I keep drawing this one too, nu-nu nunu, nu-nu nunu). Mostly the blue heron is known for standing on the edges of swampy areas looking cool, and looking huge when they fly, not to mention eating fish. The interpretation they gave it is "Make a stand for what you believe in and do what feels right in spite of any judgement or disapproval from others." Oddly enough this seems the best way to avoid conflict, up until now I have been trying to avoid conflict by being nice and accomodating, but that seems counter productive. This is also topical for my life right now. It also fits nicely in with equanimity, which can be used in steadfastness, and in helping you know what to believe in, and in having what we call "character" or "inner strength".
"in spite of judgement or disapproval from others" brings us to the lap card. Meadow, which they interpret as vulnerability, or as some other people I know say it "being seen". To be is to be seen, to not be seen is to not be. You can't be you without somebody noticing.
Interesting times :-)
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Friday, 1 March 2013
returning
May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering
May you find happiness and the causes of happiness
May your heart be filled with compassion, equanimity, joy and loving-kindness
May Wisdom and peace be with you all of your days
In difficult times study takes a back seat.
Well, in difficult times just about everything takes a back seat.
This is what I have been using for meditation last couple times. Been working up a rhythm for it.
I don't tend to say them out loud, maybe I'll do that in future, I have tried it and it is a different effect. So I breathe in and out while repeating half the line in my mind, then take an extra breath between lines (this gets me a little antsy because it drags it out a lot). Compassion, joy, loving-kindness and equanimity each get their own breath. They tend to get their order mixed around a lot, I try not to worry about it. I'll have to make up a sort of rosary for it, since I am repeating it 9 times and don't want to spare attention for counting (or I can just keep using my fingers). Lot's of "should"s, no appologies for referring to myself in the third person though. :-)
A huge part of mediation is the set up and especially the return to the world afterwards. If you don't bother with these then you are probably ignoring about half the benefit of it.
Heck the stage I am at now I think half the benefit is had by taking proper time to come down. I spent a good three minutes at it this time, going over what I need to do and for when, and when I will be doing it, and sort of "allowing planning" which isn't the same as planning. lol
I wish I could find an affordable automatic dinger, the radio alarm isn't always the best choice, since the initial sound could be just about anything. It is loads better than the eggtimer though, :-)
May you find happiness and the causes of happiness
May your heart be filled with compassion, equanimity, joy and loving-kindness
May Wisdom and peace be with you all of your days
In difficult times study takes a back seat.
Well, in difficult times just about everything takes a back seat.
This is what I have been using for meditation last couple times. Been working up a rhythm for it.
I don't tend to say them out loud, maybe I'll do that in future, I have tried it and it is a different effect. So I breathe in and out while repeating half the line in my mind, then take an extra breath between lines (this gets me a little antsy because it drags it out a lot). Compassion, joy, loving-kindness and equanimity each get their own breath. They tend to get their order mixed around a lot, I try not to worry about it. I'll have to make up a sort of rosary for it, since I am repeating it 9 times and don't want to spare attention for counting (or I can just keep using my fingers). Lot's of "should"s, no appologies for referring to myself in the third person though. :-)
A huge part of mediation is the set up and especially the return to the world afterwards. If you don't bother with these then you are probably ignoring about half the benefit of it.
Heck the stage I am at now I think half the benefit is had by taking proper time to come down. I spent a good three minutes at it this time, going over what I need to do and for when, and when I will be doing it, and sort of "allowing planning" which isn't the same as planning. lol
I wish I could find an affordable automatic dinger, the radio alarm isn't always the best choice, since the initial sound could be just about anything. It is loads better than the eggtimer though, :-)
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