I am about to go into a 7-day silent meditation retreat, so I will be off the grid for a while. That means no email, no talking, no reading, no writing, no YouTube, no wifi, no news, no TV….no nothing. Nowhere to hide. It is shaping up to be a challenging experience with temperatures predicted in the high 30s to low 40s Celsius over this … Continue reading Off grid for next 7 days.
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop. Rumi I don’t know much about Peter Russell. I have not read any of his books but his bio states that he is an author who initially studied mathematics and theoretical physics at Cambridge University (UK), before changing his studies to experimental psychology. He also travelled to India to … Continue reading Video: On consciousness.
In a couple of weeks, I will be attending another 7-day Zen meditation retreat (this will be my 4th).Why the heck do you want to spend 7 days sitting silently on your butt I hear you ask? Well, for one reason, it gives me the opportunity to investigate the illusory nature of my self. To wake up. For, as the saying goes, things are not … Continue reading On having no head.
Prologue: The Hadron Collider Kelly’s mum came to stay with us for a couple of days and I immediately put her to work helping me sew my Rakusu. We began with a few printed pages of confusing and somewhat incomplete instructions, a few shaky YouTube instructional videos, sewing threads, needles and $12.70 worth of materials. Oh, and the wooden ring given to me by my … Continue reading Rakusu Pt 2: Art from chaos.
The following excerpt is from the blog popupzendo.org. It looks at a simple practice of using two hands to embody mindfulness in day to day activities and encounters. “……. there are always opportunities to practice intentional embodiment in the midst of everyday activity that we still haven’t mastered. Two handed practice can be included as a kind of anchor that can hold our intention even while … Continue reading Two handed practice.
I’m going to talk about my zen practice for a bit. Most mornings the birds call me to it.The dawn chorus of magpie and crow call. There are other songs I can’t identify by instrument but know with deep familiarity their place in the orchestration nevertheless.First light, everything just beginning to stir. The world waking up in a trillion fresh increments. This is the time … Continue reading Zazen, is that like a Zen thing?
So I have just returned from spring sesshin with Black Mountain Zen Group. Traditionally, an individuals experiences during sesshin are not discussed in public (although I have written about my first sesshin in detail here). Its a private time so I won’t say too much about the whole thing. Except perhaps to say… that its not what you think ( a little zen humour there … Continue reading Spring Sesshin 2019.
I am just about to head off to sesshin for the next week and will be totally off-grid for the duration. This will be my third consecutive year of attending a sesshin retreat.I will, as they say, see you on the other side….. “To preserve the silence within–amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the … Continue reading Off-grid for next 7 days.
I have absolutely no idea when it comes to sewing. Re-attaching a button is usually a frustrating excursion into mangled, tangled knot-craft, and repairing anything more complex than that is immediate white flag defeat. Usually there is blood on the white flag from multiple finger pricks. Despite all this, I will soon be attempting to sew a Rakusu. I’ll explain what this is in just … Continue reading Rakusu Pt 1: The Hadron Collider
