I'm thinking i may have to give up my morning meditation.

Much as i enjoy it, i never manage to get to bed early enough to be up at 5:45 and still get a decent eight hours' sleep.  Whatever benefit i may be gaining from the meditation i feel may be undone through not enough sleep or even stressing about trying to get to bed earlier.  This past week ( Read more... )

Another observation while meditating this morning ( Read more... )

Home sick from work today, i've been taking it easy, reading some Lama Surya Das, and doing a little Tonglen meditation.  While doing that practise just a little while ago, i was focussing particularly on not just the taking in of pain and stress, but on sharing the good things i have myself as part of the light i was sending out, thinking of what ( Read more... )

(posted by owl_clan in buddhists1. Sit comfortably in a chair, but don't use the backrest of the chair. Sit closer to the edge, with your back free from touching the back of the chair ( Read more... )

That was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning we ran a few errands, including picking up a collection of broken concrete from out front of a vacant building near work.  I'd spotted them during the week and noticed they'd make perfect stepping stones for the side garden, being a couple of inches thick, flat on top and of a darker, rock-like shade of ( Read more... )

This morning we had a different teacher for meditation class.  I was running late, due to track work delaying the trains, and came in just at the end of the t'ai chi exercises.  We did some sitting meditation for a while, with the om mani padme hum music playing.  I found it a little hard to concentrate today, probably due in part to having rushed ( Read more... )

Sunday's class involved walking meditation again, this time a much slower, smaller version similar to what i've done at home. After warm-up exercises, we started by just closing our eyes and raising one foot, seeing how long we could stand and not lose balance. I would have expected to be able to do this easily, doing similar things all the time ( Read more... )

For yesterday's meditation class we went outside to the park.  When i got to the usual room, Lillian and another lady were putting out plastic bags with the cushions to protect them from dirt, and i helped put these around the room.  Lillian explained that the bags, like the towels, should be folded neatly, as messy surroundings mean a messy mind ( Read more... )

On Saturday i went to a seminar with Mr Kang in at the netball centre.  While i've had poomsae seminars up to the eyeballs lately, i went along just to train with Mr Kang again, which i haven't done since Korea.  As i do often when passing through from Flinders Street, i stopped outside the Kyokushin dojo in Banana Alley to watch them training for ( Read more... )

The meditation class this morning was really good, starting with the fact that it actually happened.  :)

It didn't take place in the shrine room as i'd hoped (i love the look, feel and smell of that place) but in a new shopfront they have just down the road, which will apparently become the site of the new temple in the future.  There wasn't much ( Read more... )