Jun

Okay, it’s down to the wire – less than an hour to go until silence. Silence for 36 hours, to be specific. Here’s our instructions for the day:

“This mini-retreat will include guided meditation appropriate for both those new to meditation practice as well as more seasoned practitioners and will include periods of sitting and walking meditation. It will provide an opportunity to practice “phenomenology on the cushion” and to observe and learn from first person experience of the fine-grained texture and moment-to-moment character of emotion-attention dynamics. ”

Hope it works! Send focusing vibes my way!!! Here’s hoping I don’t just bust out laughing in the middle of one of the group meditation sessions – that would be very, very bad. Wow, I wish that hadn’t popped into my head as a possibility, now I’m going to have to focus on pushing all laughing thoughts out of my head. I am just glad my friend Angie is not here – we would get thrown out of this place for sure!

By the way, here is a movie Craig and the kids sent me to help ease me into the silence. It is so sweet!!!
sunday_msg

I miss them a lot – I realized I have never been away from either the kids or Craig for this long before.

You know what I really need to finish preparing for this silence … a drink. Ha!

  

Related posts:

1. First night at the monastery…
2. Day two at the monastery…
3. Too Quiet
4. I am going to a monastery…
5. Later on day one at the monastery…

4 Comments »

1. 

   This description of the mini-retreat cracked me up – It will provide an opportunity to practice “phenomenology on the cushion”….They are making it sound like some sort of weird sex act!! Be sure and let me know how your time on the cushion turns out

   Glad to hear that at least your roommate seems to be working out.

   Here’s hoping that your 36 hours of silence are quick and painless.

   Comment by Angie — ח סיון תשסח @ 10:07 pm

2. 

   I hope the silence is really wonderful. I’ll be looking forward to hearing all about the retreat/conference when you’re done….

   Comment by Tony — ח סיון תשסח @ 10:18 pm

3. 

   I read your blog – funny funny! I would LOVE to trade places with you – the experience sounds amazing! I hope you do OK for the silent day – just have some fun with the quiet and remember all the times that you wanted to have some peace and quiet so badly! Kids will do that to you, right????

   I encourage you to find a sitting posture that is really comfortable for you – it may not look anything like the one in the picture on your blog. That particular pose is for people who have some serious yoga experience. I cannot meditate comfortably in that position yet, and I have been practicing yoga for almost a decade. Those folks sitting like that likely have a long-standing meditation practice already. Get someone to help you if you can. It’s very important to be comfortable in your seated posture, and if you’re not used to sitting on the floor for even 30 minutes, it will be a challenge to maintain any posture for too long. If you can, rest your back against a wall – that will help!

   I wish you all the best, and I can’t wait to hear more about your visit. I know the food isn’t your thing, but at least you don’t have to cook it yourself!

   Comment by Wallace — ח סיון תשסח @ 10:26 pm

4. 

   I just read your blog-hopefully you survived the 36 hour meditation. All the meditation I’ve done (and by ‘all’ that means probably 5 hours total with various people at high school and a few in Nashville) has been that same sort of directed breathing meditation with the emphasis on simply being aware. The resident Sidwell (high school)meditation guy/math teacher Mr. Brady had a nice analogy for us back in freshman year. He said to imagine our mind as a empty stage. Thoughts will come on to the stage and we will try to watch them play out their acts, leave the stage and then we will once again have an empty stage. Sounds nice but just like you said, its very hard to keep a quiet mind for us new comers, I don’t think I’ve been able to pull off more than 5 minutes, so I’m certianly sending good vibes over as you try 10 hrs? crazy.

   Well whatever you are doing right now I hope you’re enjoying it. Maybe this whole experience will help you be mindful of how delicious a juicy steak truly is each time you eat one once you get home. (sorry that might have been mean…) I once had to spend 10 minutes eating 3 raisins in high school, really enjoying each raisin, being aware of the sensations and movements of eating etc. Maybe that will help make the salads more interesting?

   Comment by Nick — ח סיון תשסח @ 10:46 pm

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