Thu, 24 Sep 2009
Random Complaints
Last weekend I was at the Tibetan Meditation Center for a weekend retreat. Weekend retreats are easy to fit into your schedule, but have the oprblem that they're too short. The hardest days during a retreat are the first and last, and a weekend retreat only has those two days. It's like eating an Oreo cookie with no filling in between. But I complain too much, it was a nice retreat with a good group of people that went off smoothly. I had a little trouble sleeping in a sleeping bag on the basement floor But at least I had my privacy and could get up when my inner clock told me (very early).
Unfortunately the calm, peaceful feeling I had at the end of the retreat got lost pretty quickly when I got back to work. Somewhere on Tuesday morning, I think. So it was back to Lama Phurbu Tashi for a booster shot. Tuesday night was mostly shamatha meditation, in a smorgasboard of different styles (gazing at an extrnal object, counting the breath, watching the breath, and watching the mind.) The location we're at now isn't set up for long meditation sessions. I'm not sure if our newer members are up for them or even if they're necessary. Shamatha is a bit peculiar in that you do five hours of sitting for five seconds of insight. You'd think I could figure a way to only do those five important seconds. Wednesday night I was the only person to show up for Lama Phurbu Tashi's talk, so we went over the Vajrakilaya practice and he answered my questions about details of the visualization. That was very much appreciated by me, since it's very seldom that I've had the opportunity to talk to a qualified teacher one on one about my practice.
