Tuesday, March 23, 2004


Went to Clouds in Water zen center just now. It is right in downtown St. Paul. Someone stopped me at the door and asked me if I knew what to do in a 35 minute sit. I said, "Yeah, yeah I know what it's all about."

Except I didn't know.

Zen meditation is different than what I have practiced for the past few months, which is vipassana, also called insight meditation. So different that they pulled me aside for special attention. Zen meditation is breathing and focusing on the breath in order to quiet the mind.. Vipassana is breathing and paying attention to what floats by in order to quiet the mind.

One obvious difference is that Zen meditation has a lot of structure and rules. You hold your hands here. You sew your own robe. You focus here. You sit like this and walk like that. It was explained to me that rules make things easier because then you don't have to decide where to focus your breath or which direction to face.

When the instructor took me out in the hall and told me how things were, he had me sit for 10 minutes with the special posture and special focus on the spot one inch behind my navel. Fire crept into my back and knees, but I got an idea that this kind of practice could produce the kind of holy stupor that I crave.  I have decided to leave this type of practice for after I get more practice at the insight meditation.


10:12:37 PM    comment []
 


A visit to the emergency room in Fresno
9:21:47 PM    comment []
 


From Velcrometer:

 .....But we can all see the value of putting ice cubes in the toilet to make drinking that much more pleasant for one's dog. After all, who wants to go to the trouble of cluttering up one's floor with a water bowl when one can simply brighten Rex's day by tipping the ice cube trays into the shitter? That's the sign of a true dog-lover, right there.


5:17:47 PM    comment []
 


If you have an hour to spare, Speaking of Faith has a great interview with Karen Armstrong, who wrote The History of God.  She also wrote a biography of the Buddha.

One valuable thing she said was that religions share the aspect of compassion, which encourages the practitioner to remove themselves from the throne and make someone else the center.  I find that  children force me into this role.  This is one of the goals of meditiation as well:  remove the self from the equation.


8:25:43 AM    comment []
 


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