2011.10.27 _ 56

Meditated in the morning. Standing meditation, with about a minute of spontaneous Tonglen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonglen

I felt a great gratefulness for being able to breathe, and then for all the coordination and organization that makes this great mass of matter and energy show itself as a world.

http://wiki.playasbeing.org/index.php?title=Guardian_Pages/Guardians%27_Contributions/Eliza/Other_Poems_and_Suchlike

::: Rajput karma loop
::: Diwali with Indian friend
::: Timewave sweet ripples

Recliner sit: How well I understand wester's "spontaneous Tonglen."
When it arrives, it feels like something that comes to and through me. Almost always, it's something that I didn't realize I'd needed -- soon I am able to breathe again, to settle, and to be grateful.

Recalling, now, lines from a poem by Wm. Butler Yeats:

"My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless." edited 19:45, 27 Oct 2011

Spontaneous tonglen sounds wonderful. I was running on empty all day, and failed to summon the energy or gumption to sit. How silly that sounds when written out, yet from one minute to the next during the day it made a kind of sense. Whence this feeling that I must be in a particular state of being to meditate? Was not the point of the 9 seconds to be able to do it anywhere, any time?

What a nice surprise, to hear from Stevenaia in yesterday's report about Dharma visiting him. Please say hello to her, Steve! Fond memories of meeting her almost four years ago, and then being introduced to you while you were still wearing suspenders. (^_^) And I was inspired by Wester's view of standing meditation as a form of surrender. I then stood for a while, surrendering to gravity, to whatever was stirring inside and out, to the Universe.

Tai Chi when I woke up... but the house stirred and was interrupted before I could finished

So interesting that tonglen came up for 'the group' yesterday. For me too, when coming right out of a nap... wouldn't think to mention except that quite uncanny to read everyone.

"It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless." <--- Nice, Bruce

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