2011.12.30 _ 11

Early morning sit, not very concentrated, but still delightfully relaxed.
Wester, when ideas pop in my mind while sitting, I sometimes speak them in on a voice recorder that I keep next to my cushion; I find that less distracting that picking up a pen and writing; and I find both less distracting than trying to remember the idea during the rest of the session. Note: an oldfashioned simple voice recorder is best, since you can find the buttons without looking, once you're used to it; a modern contraption like an iphone requires more attention and hence is more distracting; I use the same simple voice recorder to speak in dream notes too, when I wake up in the middle of the night (I have been using a RCA RP5120 for years, am very happy with it; see http://www.amazon.com/RCA-RP5120-Recording-Digital-Recorder/dp/B0015A6O6S/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1325240390&sr=1-1). edited 10:23, 30 Dec 2011

Appreciation. "Stop and let happiness catch you." Sabbath. Rest. Enough. Finished. Complete. Never not. Pause. Be... Remembering this in a thousand ways.

"New Year" bell approaching, and timely reminder this morning that what one needs is not planning necessarily, map of "ways to improve" but rather, commitment:

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the sea."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

201112301355
A mourning dove on a wire. Beige beauty in a very cold day, fluffy brown feathers opening up suddenly to fly away. #timestamp

If, instead of giving a man some fish, you teach him how to fish.....he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day :)

Happiness, boredom, anger, frustration
We all know what they are, don't we?
Yet when I look closely at them
They vanish like ghostly phantoms
That the mind will hastily reconstruct
When I look away again

Standing meditation just before going to bed. Not an ideal time. Felt quite agitated and changed to prostrations halfway. Sometimes the mind won't stay still enough for standing (or sitting) meditation and then the prostrations are just a bit more controlling.

I will be away for a few days. Back on Tuesday. And just as well I am doing this 99 days thing, or else I would have forgotten to ask for a GoC replacement on Monday!

At sea. :-) Check.