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Daily practice. Moon in Scorpio, ~ 20-degs Kali bija, 1 x 108 Tara bija, 1 x 108 Maha Laskhmi, 12 x 108 Yang24 x 7 Finally, finally! I didn't feel right all day, and ended up punting this to the evening. When I got there, the bums were still sleeping near the place I had spent chanting Maha La ...
Hosh
Hosh sat for 120 minutes
about 6 hours ago
Tried to count up to 10 by incrementing a count once every inwards breath, as mentioned by Dan. Failed pretty badly here. That's fine, though, it's a good metric to examine my level of concentration. I felt like I was plugging holes in a sinking canoe with every available finger and toe. My righ ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 4 minutes
about 10 hours ago 3 1
• Week 5 • Offering Light • Breaks: 8 • Passes:6 It took me a few initial passes to get to grips with this new contemplation, and ensure I'd wrapped my mind around what I was doing. Then I was able to sit with it for a while, before I entered a period of being pretty sleepy, and I lost myself ...
jameswarlock
James sat for 30 minutes
about 16 hours ago
Started by breathing deeply and counting on each inhale. 1 - out breath - 2 - out breath - 3 - out breath, up to 10. Three times in a row. If I forget what I number I'm on I start again until I get 3 runs without interruption. This is a nice way of settling in and cultivating concentration at th ...
danbartlett
Dan Bartlett sat for 30 minutes
about 17 hours ago 4 1
Week 4 Noting Life Breaks: 3 Passes: na Description: I had a cunning plan today. I counted breaths to give myself a focus, thus hoping to reduce the number of breaks. This worked brilliantly for the first ten minutes, and then continued to work well when I started the Noting Life section, even ...
Artemis
Artemis sat for 30 minutes
about 19 hours ago
Not sure if I was sitting to enjoy a sit or to procrastinate, but it worked well. It was easy to focus on the breath and to cut out the chatter. I sat, I breathed, the same awareness of hands and feet, but not legs and arms was present. I now think the stomach feelings are related to food/hu ...
GinaShaw
Gina Shaw sat for 5 minutes
about 19 hours ago 2
I feel very blah and the conference is kicking it up. Body is still tired from walking all over yesterday. I'm going to do my daily practice as an afternoon or evening practice.
Hosh
Hosh added a diary.
about 20 hours ago
Realized I was controlling my breath during this sit. That's part of what made me think the technique was so easy yesterday. I think the way I sat on the cushion this time caused me to be off balance. My whole left side felt like it was hanging on my right side. I do think, despite that, my l ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 6 minutes
about 22 hours ago 3 1
Day 20 I sat last night before bed. I was in a bad place over the last couple of days. A combination of a few negatives in my life had made that negative voice grow louder and stronger. I was daydreaming those days away. I was listening to some Alan Watts on YouTube and also have the Power ...
mattyashy
Matt sat for 30 minutes
1 day ago 3
Daily practice (pt 2). Kali bija, 1 x 108 Tara bija, 1 x 108 Maha Lakshmi, 6 x 108 Yang24 x 7 Was lazy and ended up eating dinner. I didn't try this until after dinner. And a half shot of bourbon. I overate too. It was interesting practicing Maha Lakshmi with a full stomach, and watching som ...
Hosh
Hosh sat for 80 minutes
1 day ago 1
Took to the cushion with ease, thinking to myself that there's only one thing to do: "observe my breathing". I felt aligned with this purpose so much so that maybe I fooled myself into not being very observant. I think that positivity can be just as disruptive as negativity in principle. The sam ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 7 minutes
1 day ago 2
• Week 4 • Resting Life • Breaks: 3 • Passes:4 Quite a lot of thoughts wandering around tonight, but they didn't really intrude or interrupt - I seemed to be trying to sort some things out in my mind, but I was able to hold the thread of the contemplation throughout. Towards the end it felt li ...
jameswarlock
James sat for 30 minutes
1 day ago
So much for practice before lunch or allowing the sensations of hunger to arise and pass :-) I'll try later tonight I think. Gonna explore Chinatown.
Hosh
Hosh added a diary.
1 day ago
Week 4 Noting Life Breaks: 6? Passes: na Description: Not too bad today. As usual my mind got tired towards the end and forgot what it was supposed to be doing, just as these days I often find myself walking into a room having forgotten what I went in there for. (I have new-found sympathy for t ...
Artemis
Artemis sat for 30 minutes
2 days ago
Daily practice (pt 1). Moon in Libra, ~ 29-deg Kali bija, 1 x 108 Tara bija, 1 x 108 Maha Lakshmi 6 x 108 Yang24 x 7 I'm in San Francisco for a conference, out in the Finance District. I thought there was something going on at 9:00, and having woken up late, I cut my morning practice short wit ...
Hosh
Hosh sat for 80 minutes
2 days ago 1 1
I was able to sidestep whatever thoughts and feelings emerged during this sit and stay with my breath. This is the first sit in a while where I was able to keep my focus this constant. All distractions kinda melted and I gravitated back to my breath with ease.
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 6 minutes
2 days ago 3 1
I began this sit by experimenting with my kyphosis. I rolled my shoulders back and opened my chest wider than ordinary. As I expected, moments after returning focus to my breath, my shoulders had rolled forward. My spine was aching the whole time, indicating I'm sure, that I was defying my natur ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 5 minutes
2 days ago 2 1
Didn't get much sleep this weekend, so I kind of dozed off during my attempts today. Even during my lunchbreak session, went to my usual quiet spot (relatively quiet) and next thing I knew, I had totally drifted off, for a while. Totally consumed with this particular bug. Lol, I'm still obsessin ...
Edinunzio
Liz sat for 10 minutes
2 days ago 2 5
Week 4 Noting Life Breaks: 8 Passes: na Description: Turns out noticing the end of things is a lot easier than noticing the start of things. Hurrah. Inasmuch as things have ends, but as before I'm assuming that that kind of philosophising isn't the point of this exercise. Though I may be wrong. ...
Artemis
Artemis sat for 30 minutes
3 days ago
Daily practice. Moon in Libra 14-deg mobile site kinda sucks. About to travel. Kali bija 1 x 108 Tara bija 1 x 108 Maha Lakshmi 12 x 108 Yang24 x 7 Did Yang24 the night before bed. Not much to note. Practice today is out of it, even Yang24.
Hosh
Hosh sat for 120 minutes
3 days ago
Note to self: fear of 'creating' attachment is still... attachment.
danbartlett
Dan Bartlett added a diary.
3 days ago 4 1
Been on the road for the last 4 days so I haven't had a regular place and time to practice. I've been practising on trains, in my sleeping bag on a chair in a cold Welsh cottage and by a mountain stream. I felt like it's just been enough to check in with myself. I've been busy seeing a lot of pe ...
tombh
Thomas Buckley-Houston added a diary.
3 days ago 4 1
Day 19 I missed a day yesterday. Saturday night turned into an all out binge drinking night with friends. Couldn't face it yesterday. That is something I haven't done too recently, but it has really knocked me for 6. I always feel guilty after going out drinking as it doesn't meet with my m ...
mattyashy
Matt sat for 12 minutes
3 days ago 3
The negativity of yesterday has more or less disappeared, but I feel sore. During this sit, on top of having just gotten out of bed, I was feeling a bit feeble. My breath was tiny and my thoughts swarmed with mundane topics. I was relaxed, though. Not even my lat was tense. I remember dreaming ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 5 minutes
3 days ago 1
Today I allowed my thoughts to be the most pessimistic they ever become. It made me miserable. It actually made me cry. So tonight's sit was drenched in that. A tension sat right in my chest, pulling down. My breath was shallow and lost among indulgent images of self pity. I do feel, though, ...
loupeabody
Lou Peabody sat for 5 minutes
3 days ago 2
• Week 4 • Resting Love • Breaks: 3 • Passes:4 I found I was feeling quite a lot of negative emotion tonight - some anger and frustration and so on - and it seemed to get in the way of getting too deep into a state, I wasn't able to go as far into the effortlessness. Applying the method to th ...
jameswarlock
James sat for 30 minutes
4 days ago
A lot of resistance to sitting over last few days, although I have still done it. Feeling very uncomfortable about a thing that is happening at the moment and the idea of sitting with this discomfort is unpleasant. The discomfort is I think an acute awareness of the loss arising from the imperma ...
Becky
Becky added a diary.
4 days ago 2
Daily practice. Moon in Libra (4-deg-26) Kali bija mantra, 1 x 108 Tara bija mantra, 1 x 108 Dantian breathing x 108 Just sitting ??? Maha Lakshmi mantra, 12 x 108 Tai chi Yang24 x 7 Just sitting < 1 min This marks 408 x 108 of 1,250 x 108 of the Maha Lakshmi practice. I did the Yang24 x 7 ...
Hosh
Hosh sat for 165 minutes
4 days ago 1
Week 3 Noting Love Breaks: Still just tons Passes: na Description: Last day of Noting Love, and I can't say I'm sad about that. :) I still just suck at it. I think the problem is that I just don't have the mental energy needed to sustain the kind of alertness you need to actually register each ...
Artemis
Artemis sat for 30 minutes
4 days ago
Foggy head. A little confused and possibly nervous.. I'm struggling to find anything concrete ... Pleasant enough, remembering to give away all when available, the thoughts rise up and fall away. Fizzing in the throat. okay .. But that nagging subtle searching is still carrying on as usual.
jasoncale
Jason Cale sat for 30 minutes
4 days ago 1 1