2012.01.12 _ 24

This morning, some lovely pink clouds in a very grey sky. Allow this image to pierce my mind. The greyness will return no matter what I do, but I can allow holes to be punched into it. Now if only practice was as easy as theory...

Standing meditation in the morning. Jittery.

Almost an hour of practice, after getting up. Although I first tried to work with Time, like in the last couple days, I stayed with Space instead. I considered all spaces that I am taking part in, in one way or another. The physical space, as I interpret it as the place my body and world resides in; the space in which phenomena appear that point to the implied physical space; spaces more specifically allowing memories and fantasies, also mathematical spaces, and so on. From there I naturally shifted attention to an ultimate Space as the Space of all spaces.
There was a sense of wide openness. Normally a space makes room for objects, allows things to appear in one way or another. But a Space that makes room for spaces just feels very different. It also feels like it is making room for itself. After getting on with daily life, the sense of wide openness lingered.

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A hot shower after a long walk in the snowstorm, sitting quietly, contemplating the softness of the nightfall, drinking a cup of herbal tea with honey, happy to have a long stretch of free time ahead of me to work on my book, enjoying the creative process so much. There was a thin veil of rose floating in the tree branches as I walked back from the river: I thought of your lovely pink clouds Wester and I'm hopeful they foretell of a new joy flowing into your writing project. #timestamp

I was reading about Sojun Mel Weitzman, an American Zen teacher who had just reached his 80th birthday and many people were giving tributes to him. He wasn't a charismatic figure, he just got on with teaching quietly. One person reflected on his steadiness – she knew that if she went to the zendo at 5 AM in the morning he would be there sitting quietly. Quietly sitting zazen – I like that idea better than searching and thinking.

He is now called an "Umbrella Man." Apparently in Japanese the figure eight looks like an umbrella. So he metaphorically holds an umbrella over people to shield them from the storms of life.

Down shifting into some wonder level, beneath stories, beneath hope and fear, making and unmaking. Appreciation beneath anything, everything.

... ☂...

Set the timer for half an hour, to frame a time where the primary (non)activity is resting, but if anything or any activity came up, that is also included. Sat in a chair by the wood stove as a snowstorm whitened the outside. Perhaps the only difference from any other time block is the intentional framing of primary activity as resting in not doing (even while doing). 8-)