2011.10.25 _ 54

Meditated in the morning. Standing meditation. Went a bit deeper into yesterdays explorations.

Meanwhile, the "be grateful to everyone" slogan has embedded itself quite firmly in the background of my mind. Occasionally it comes up and I see how it works with that particular situation. I happen to be quite irritable at the moment, and one of the things to practice is not just being grateful to the people that irritate me, but also for the irritability itself. This seems to me to be an aspect of what pema said yesterday about nondualistic acceptance. And also, don't forget to be grateful to the things where the gratefulness comes easily, such as the interaction in this group, and cats, children, coffee, and roasted cauliflower.

Sat for ten minutes in the office, before lunch, listening to what I had expected to be "silence". Although there were no human voices or intentional noises to be heard, the room was in fact vibrant with the humming and throbbing of the many machines, and the longer I listened the louder and more distinct they became. From there I went to a memory of a place where I had heard a truer inhabited silence: in my grandmother's apartment when I would visit her on weekends. The only sound there was the ticking of her clock, and in winter the tiny rustling hiss of the gas fire. I haven't thought of her in many years, though we were very close when I lived in England during the last decade of her life. I felt very grateful (waves to Wester) to her, for her many kindnesses direct and indirect: she was a simple woman, quite at peace with herself and the world, who enriched in tiny ways the lives of everyone who met her. I wonder whether it is significant, or just one of those coincidences that God love to tease us with, that every generation of her family has included at least one teacher: her children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. edited 11:13, 25 Oct 2011

::: Travelling through time
::: Through the seventeen high doors
::: Through the black light key

Easy to begin the day with a thought something like "I want to keep dreaming" or "I want to stay in bed" - but, this morning felt it to linger out there ~ this now friendly thought ~ long enough to really see an invisible choice of sorts, being made, to enter the day that way (wanting). Bow of thanks to the thought, who winked back... appreciative for having been acknowledged. edited 12:55, 25 Oct 2011

Luci thinks about the clock ticking in the homes of several older folk she has known.
The comforting nature of this sound alone brings a sense of "what comes next".
Thanks Wol for the reminder.
Regarding what comes next...may my son and his girlfriend learn more about the southern highland conservancy take over of the property they live on. May what comes next come together as seamlessly as possible. May his tending of the garden there not seem pointless. So much has been learned in these plantings.

A few minutes into the Recliner Sit this morning, I heard the roar and rumble of my farmer's combine harvesting our field of corn. I was instantly happy that he'd been able to get in - especially since it's been quite rainy here of late.
Yesterday morning, I heard the racket of my across-the-road neighbor's combine harvesting his soybeans. I was instantly resentful that "his" noise had disturbed "my" quietude.
How flimsy and fickle is any "happiness" that puts "self" at the center of experience!

This morning I started off with trust, as Bruce had indicated yesterday at the end of his report. The last few days I have been busy musing about plans for my research for the next few years. And while it certainly is a good idea to think things over, and to look at the various possibilities and possible ramifications, at some point it also feels good to then let it all go, in a gesture of trust: trust that the right things will happen in the right time; or better: trust that I will somehow find a right way to respond to whatever will happen.

Listening to your silences, clocks ticking, harvesters rumbling.vibrant humming.
Grateful for your sounds and voices
as I move through a world
once familiar but now disrupted with new sounds.
Encouraging me to drop old memories and make new ones,
to become aware how my little self is shaped and supported
by the ever-changing external. edited 02:19, 26 Oct 2011

Sometimes it can be just so relaxing not focusing on what you are doing, and just let it happen.... Tai Chi from my office in the morning, earlier today. edited 11:36, 27 Oct 2011