More and more and more to learn
I am not sure if I'll be going to meditation in Willington tonight. They don't use chairs there, only cushions, and my poor knee complains afterwards.
I tried to do a short meditation this morning. It was a *metta*, or lovingkindness, meditation. Here is a link for the method I used: http://www.tricycle.com/-practice/five-practices-change-your-mind?page=0,1
Challenges: the dog who did not know if she wanted to go out, or come in, or lie down on the bed. Also, my leg was giving me pain, even though I was sitting in a proper chair. I wish this thing would go away. I hope buying new sneakers will take care of it.
The meditation went *pretty* well, I think. I had no shortage of people to direct my lovingkindness to, except... I couldn't really think of anyone I had difficulty with! Even the candidates! Shall I work on hating someone so I can start to love them? Hm.
Anyway, I keep finding more and more and more to learn about. There are different schools of Buddhism, different canons and traditions and whatnot. Different types of meditations, lots and lots of Sanskrit words to learn... and all the history of the East! Argh. What the hell am I doing reading fiction and magazines when there is all this other stuff I don't know?
Gave up on reading The Buddha: A Short Biography, by Strong. It kind of made me *not* like the Buddha all that much. Put it on the bookshelf next to the Dalai Lama's autobiography. Am now reading Emotional Awareness: A Conversation Between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman, PhD, which is from the library. I like it so far, except that Ekman, in true scientist form, keeps restating and clarifying everything they cover. OKAY, PAUL! Let's move it along!
I tried to do a short meditation this morning. It was a *metta*, or lovingkindness, meditation. Here is a link for the method I used: http://www.tricycle.com/-practice/five-practices-change-your-mind?page=0,1
Challenges: the dog who did not know if she wanted to go out, or come in, or lie down on the bed. Also, my leg was giving me pain, even though I was sitting in a proper chair. I wish this thing would go away. I hope buying new sneakers will take care of it.
The meditation went *pretty* well, I think. I had no shortage of people to direct my lovingkindness to, except... I couldn't really think of anyone I had difficulty with! Even the candidates! Shall I work on hating someone so I can start to love them? Hm.
Anyway, I keep finding more and more and more to learn about. There are different schools of Buddhism, different canons and traditions and whatnot. Different types of meditations, lots and lots of Sanskrit words to learn... and all the history of the East! Argh. What the hell am I doing reading fiction and magazines when there is all this other stuff I don't know?
Gave up on reading The Buddha: A Short Biography, by Strong. It kind of made me *not* like the Buddha all that much. Put it on the bookshelf next to the Dalai Lama's autobiography. Am now reading Emotional Awareness: A Conversation Between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman, PhD, which is from the library. I like it so far, except that Ekman, in true scientist form, keeps restating and clarifying everything they cover. OKAY, PAUL! Let's move it along!