I sat Burmese with for two back-to-back half hour sittings yesterday without any meaningful troubles and again for half an hour this morning with even less.

I'm beginning to see more and more why these positions are considered favored over other positions, I think. The mental aspect of training seems to be much more poised and natural than before.

But other factors may be at work here. In order to get into these traditional postures I'm working out more, stretching more, etc.

So the mental poise may be a side-effect of the jumping jacks for all I know.

The first of my three planned yoga classes is this afternoon. In the mean time I have continued to pursue vigorous exercise in private lessons at the nearby taekwondo studio.

After a few days of this, I feel better than I have in a long time. My flexibility and general comfort level have improved immediately. I begin to suspect that there's a basic need for well-balanced physical cultivation as a support for contemplative practice.

Some googling supports the idea that taekwondo (and various other traditional martial arts) is very much in sync with shikantaza practice.

I've been trying to work my way into Dogen-Approved© zazen postures lately and have discovered that it's getting easier at a rate I hadn't expected.

The main key seems to be vigorous exercise, as best I can tell. Prostrations, pruning trees, mowing the lawn, and martial arts practice all seem to leave my muscles more ready to stretch for a while. And by stretching moderately (short of actual pain) I have limbered up a bit in the last several days.

During zazen this evening I was even able to get into what I felt was a passable half lotus for a while with assistance of cushions.

And it really did feel a lot more stable than seiza.

I've signed up for three yoga classes, which I expect will help equip me with a bit more appropriate body knowledge.

108 prostrations

Today after work I did my first 108 prostrations set.

In a nutshell, you gassho, then get on your knees, elbows, and forehead, and lift your palms up. Lather, rinse, repeat 108 times.

I recorded it, but it took a solid half hour. So if I want to upload to youtube or similar, I'll have to do some pretty severe editing.

It required a real disciplined effort.

I counted prostrations on a 108-bead mala to simplify matters somewhat.

Then I took a shower & did two hours of zazen, kinhin, and chanting.

Due to circumstances I didn't expect (nothing dire, just logistics), I'm missing the weekend trip to the temple for samu day & sesshin. But as has been said before, "All you really need is a zafu and a wall."

Changing direction....

A discussion this week brought to mind the potential value of noting both bad moments/days on the path as well as better ones.

In that spirit, I thought I'd mention a few things I might not have otherwise blogged about my current efforts.

Just in the last several days I've gotten it in mind to start stretching toward sitting in the lotus position over the next several months. So far, about the best I can say is that I don't seem to have meaningfully injured myself in the effort yet.

I also set the bar a little higher by taking on oryoki. I ordered a prefabricated set from an online store (which arrived here dizzy fast... wow) and have googled up a bunch of information to set me on the course.

Among the most interesting finds so far is this video on youtube called "Oryoki: open and close".



I took the set out of the box today and pored over the "close" part mainly, and parroted as best I could, resulting in this first attempt:

From dharma

Even more useful in some ways are the following videos by Jundo of Treeleaf Zendo:

Make an oryoki set from household items

Simplified ceremonial oryoki

I don't want to promote the myth that oryoki is hard. I'll just say there's a lot of room for me to practice here.

I've done three and a half hours of zazen today.

Now I'm going to bed.

Honestly, some times I don't know how the cat does it.

temple weekend coming up

This evening I will be sitting quite a bit in my last (planned) intensive effort prior to samu & sesshin at the temple this weekend.

Thursday I intend to be back to a more normal practice routine: half an hour in the morning, half an hour in the dojo after work (only done a few days a week, when the group gathers for practice), and probably another half hour before bed.

Friday is travel day. So I'll have my morning sit, work until noon, then go pick up a rental car (because I don't care for the idea of taking my 11-year-old Sentra on meaningful road trips), then head to New Orleans for the weekend.

When I return, I vaguely expect I'll get back to a slightly less intense routine than the one I've been on lately, but not by much. On even a heavy practice day lately, it has only added up to a few hours.

After all, I work all day and have chores waiting at home. And although I don't blog about it much, I do have a life outside the zendo. heh

At Treeleaf, you can "book" the Zen Hall, meaning commit to firing up the webcam and having your zazen period viewable during a certain time frame.

I just noted that one of the odd perks of this is that you can look back at the times you've recently booked and see how much a little sitting adds up.

For example, this isn't all the sitting time I've done lately (no webcam in the local sangha dojo, and doesn't count time spent during non-booked periods), but it's encouraging to see that I've been consistent with my practice in a "matter of record" way.

Thursday May 21st, 02:00 > 03:00 AM
Thursday May 21st, 11:15 > 11:45 AM
Friday May 22nd, 02:30 > 03:00 AM
Friday May 22nd, 11:30 > 12:00 PM
Saturday May 23rd, 02:00 > 03:00 AM
Saturday May 23rd, 11:30 > 12:00 PM
Sunday May 24th, 01:30 > 03:00 AM
Sunday May 24th, 11:30 > 12:00 PM
Monday May 25th, 02:00 > 03:00 AM
Monday May 25th, 11:30 > 12:00 PM — Every Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri for 4 weeks
Tuesday May 26th, 02:00 > 03:00 AM
Wednesday May 27th, 02:00 > 02:30 AM
Thursday May 28th, 02:00 > 02:30 AM
Friday May 29th, 01:30 > 02:00 AM
Saturday May 30th, 11:00 > 12:30 PM
Sunday May 31st, 03:00 > 03:30 AM
Sunday May 31st, 11:00 > 12:30 PM

(Note: All times are listed in UTC - I'm in Central Standard Time)

working toward the lotus position

I've been sitting in the seiza position for years, because back when I was in my twenties and used some of the "pretzel leg" sitting positions, it seemed to lead to soft tissue trouble as much as anything else.

But I've been doing some stretching over the last few weeks (some of which I believe led immediately to more soft tissue trauma) and I aim to try and get to half lotus or full lotus within the next [?] months.

Although I've seen the basic reasoning why these positions are supposed to be better than seiza, I confess to a bit of skepticism.

But dharma practice is, at least in part, about resolving doubt through personal learning experience. So I'm giving it a go.

A month ago I was capable of sitting in a position sort of like a Burmese posture on a tall zafu, but I'm still recovering from last weekend's tree fall and the aforementioned soft tissue trouble. So I'm currently less capable than I was just a month ago.

Whether sitting in these double plus good good postures of old is really better for zazen or not remains to be seen. But working on becoming more limber should have some health benefits as I continue to age, so hey, why not...

zen in the matrix

I don't mean metaphors in a movie made several years ago, but the online component of zen practice.

Here lately I've found that I participate in Treeleaf Zendo more than in my local dojo. The local dojo group only meets three times weekly, but Treeleaf is always there, with a teacher providing opportunities for daily zazen practice with all the bells & whistles of soto zen practiced in a physical zendo.

There are technical difficulties, like being disconnected from a webcam streaming service, which I've found to be fairly minor hurdles.

But practicing and learning with people in many time zones and cultures has become an increasingly meaningful part of my daily routine. My practice has improved in a few overt ways as a direct result.

I've begun to think of Treeleaf as "my group" in pretty much the same basic way that I think of my local group of practitioners.

Here lately I have been practicing zazen twice daily in sessions ranging from half an hour to a few hours long.

With the beefed up routine and the additional group practice, a subtle change in attitude is taking place. I find it a little easier to accept daily tragedies like falling in a tree or deadline stresses at the office in healthier ways.

My mental life is becoming just a little more calm, just a little more quiet.

I've been stretching more to decrease discomfort while sitting.

Not the most fascinating blog entry ever, I know. But some times that's a good sign.

I'm settling into the new house more and more, and everything has been moved from the old one, so at least half of my stuff isn't stuck in another county.

In the process I've been adapting to a bit of a quasi-monastic life in a sense.

Most days I sit either with a group in the dojo or in the zendo at home at least twice, and have expanded the practice with more prostrations, bowing, and chanting. I get in as much as a few hours of formal practice daily at this point.

I even managed to rip a CD of chants to my Zune and photocopy the hand-outs so I can practice the chanting ceremony some.

As of last night, I've even hauled the laptop into the zendo and fired up the webcam for "live sitting" in the Treeleaf Zen Hall. It's basically a way to sit with others who happen to be in different rooms elsewhere in the world.

With a "new" house built in 1991, there are many opportunities for samu, and yesterday I made every effort to mow the lawn as working zazen. It's not all about the cushion, after all.

Even during "cushion time" you never know what may come up. The cat flopped right down on my zabuton during sanpai last night, so I had to wing it.

Weekend after next, I intend to head to New Orleans for a weekend of samu and a sesshin starting Saturday evening and lasting through Sunday afternoon. While there's truth to the notion that we can continue to practice even while going about our workday lives, there's also something to be said for periods of intensive practice without the deadlines and phones.

The bench has now survived a few hours of practice. I've continued to experiment with different butt placements and found a few that seem to work out well enough so far. It seems to provide a pretty stable seat, which can some times be a bit of a fuss on cushions.

The legs don't fold or break away (screwdriver required for any tinkering), but I found it easy enough to haul to the dojo this afternoon.

As of today, almost all of the local "zen newcomers" from the Intro Workshop have made it to at least one of the subsequent practices, and a few have made it to more than one. I appreciate that on a variety of levels.

If nothing else, having others in the dojo changes the "mind space" in that you're practicing for the others in the room in a way that doesn't quite apply to solo sitting. Solo sitting isn't "less than" as a result, mind you.

As someone put it after the session, "Sitting alone and sitting together support each other."

The vast majority of my practice is solo here at the house, although I'm equipped for "guest sitters" in the event that any show up. It works out well enough for me so far, as I'm developing something of a quasi-monastic practice here at the new house.

Bebe, who owns the dojo, has said that it's available within a few basic parameters for away-from-home practice, which I'd been hoping to ask about anyway. There's a good atmosphere there, and I've been thinking about more intensive practice away from the (very minor) bustle of home & neighborhood.

I feel very fortunate for so much.

breaking in the Sky Bench

Last week I ordered a Sky Bench from Carolina Morning Designs (with whom I've had a few quite satisfactory transactions over the years).

After work today I unpacked the parts and assembled it with minimal fuss, and decided to put it through its paces this evening (and get the hang of using it) before using it in group practice tomorrow afternoon.

My usual zazen position is seiza, and the bench is advertised as "Especially helpful to people over 6'2" tall for sitting in seiza position." I'm between 6'3" and the better part of 6'4" depending on when I'm measured, so I figured this would be fine.

I sat for two 25-minute sessions bridged by several minutes of kinhin and followed by sanpai. This is longer than the weekday group sittings and similar to the Sunday morning routine (minus some liturgy). I folded a gray microfiber towel to cushion my point of contact a bit, on the assumption that I'd find the bare bench uncomfortable after a while.

When I see pictures of people sitting in seiza position on benches, they generally have their whole rumps on the benches, but I felt more comfortable closer to the front edge of the bench.

It took a bit of shuffling to orient myself to it, but I had no meaningful difficulty with the hour of practice.

I'll continue to test drive it and see if I can get a little objective input on my posture using the bench, just in case it turns out that a slightly smaller bench might serve me better in seiza position. But my first impression is that it's a perfectly decent bench.

meditation timers

In my solo practice, I've tried a variety of ways to mark the time.

Most recently, I've used the Lesson One guided meditation from the Insight Meditation correspondence course (about 45 minutes, with non-intrusive comments from the instructor here and there), a meditation timer app for my Treo with various appropriate sounds at certain times I programmed, and this evening tried the Treeleaf Zendo downloadable timer.

The guided meditation and Treeleaf Zendo timer are both downloaded to my Zune (an mp3 player). With noise-canceling headphones, I can more or less block out the world with this method, which isn't quite like being in the zendo and introduces weird side-effects like hearing internal body noises like breathing more intimately than you ever really asked for. But the noise-canceling headphones are optional, and your mileage may vary with this option anyway.

After the final bowl ringing, the Treeleaf Zendo timer has a female voice saying, "Thank you for sitting with the Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto sangha, Jendo Cohen, teacher," and provides musical credits, the website URL, etc. It's a little odd, but can be easily enough avoided by stopping the track when you're done.

The guided meditation is broken into a few discrete tracks, so once you know which one(s) you want to sit through, you can just make a playlist and get sitting.

Of them all, I find my Treo app to be the most universally useful. I currently have it set to signal me through a 60-minute session of zazen and kinhin (with no special need to signal sanpai, as it simply takes place as the final activity).

There's something to be said for the guided meditation approach, though. A well-trained teacher interjects in a manner intended to help one get through a sitting session, which can be useful.

And as anyone with an mp3 player or sound-enabled computer can play mp3s, the Treeleaf Zendo provides a no-cost, perfectly good option.

There are lots of meditation timers online and even physical devices that ring chimes & such, but these are a few I've tried recently and found satisfactory.

Audio Dharma has one I haven't tried in actual sitting practice, but downloaded & checked for any obvious quirks. I found none. These are also free of charge mp3s. Audio Dharma Meditation Timer

value of group sitting

One of the absolute newcomers to last weekend's workshop arrived early this morning, received some tutoring on dojo etiquette, and joined us for the first sitting and kinhin (almost half of our full session). I'm glad that our format enables people to fully participate without having to endure marathon events while getting their feet wet.

Another gentleman who's been participating in regular practice with the group for about three months referred to himself as a newcomer, somewhat in comparison to me. This got my mental gears turning a bit, as I've only been practicing regularly with the group for a rather short time. So I think of myself as the newcomer, despite how long ago I began practicing.

There's a meaningful difference between regularly practicing a specific tradition with a group and practicing alone without such ties. Personally, I place some value on the three months he's practiced with the group, and have been doing the same here lately myself.

Aside from the consistency of routine, group practice raises the bar on everything from punctuality to excessive fidgeting. When sitting with the group, one's respect for the practice environment of others may help cultivate healthy behavior about which one may tend to be more lax when practicing alone.

Besides, when practicing solo, where do you turn when you have a question?

diving into intensive practice

Of the various newcomers who attended the Intro to Zen Workshop and then participated in sesshin the following day, only one came to the much less intensive weekday practice this week.

It's too soon to tell if any of the others will show up for some of our other meetings, as 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday can actually be a formidable scheduling hurdle. I wonder if we'll see any semi-fresh faces at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday session.

Hopefully sesshin didn't just plain wear anyone out. I worked my way up to intensive practice gradually over months when I first started mindfulness practice.

Some times it seems easier, and some times it seems harder. Earlier this week I tried breath counting, which I hadn't done in years, and counted 83 out breaths before becoming meaningfully distracted. Then my concentration waned, and just minding my breath at all was like stargazing on a partly cloudy night. I could see just fine for a time, then the view would be obstructed.

I hope those newly introduced to zazen practice give it more than just one shot and get to see clear skies. In zazen, even the clouds provide opportunities to return again and again to the awesome views that await anyone patient enough to wait for obstructions to run their course and glide away.

nice new practice space

The house I just bought came with what the seller's realtor called a "great room" and I would typically call a living room. It's now a zendo, so I have plenty of space in which to practice.

This isn't the whole room, but it's what I'm using for my main practice space so far:

From dharma

I have a meditation timer app on my Treo that makes clapper and bowl sounds to mark time for me.

After a bowl of matcha, this morning's routine was 25 minutes of zazen and sanpai (three full prostrations), which is a good, brief routine.

I've got it set for 25 minutes of zazen, 10 minutes of kinhin, then 25 more minutes of zazen, so for the short routine I just performed sampai instead of the kinhin.

a few thoughts the day after sesshin

Having seen people pull it off now, I can say that it is possible to fully participate in sesshin with no prior experience in the practice (however challenging one may find it). But there's something to be said for preparation.

I've been sitting for years, and found sitting for even very short periods challenging at first. I'm not sure whether it had been weeks or months into my practice that I participated in my first "Day of Zen" (quite similar to yesterday's sesshin). I do recall that during those days, a half-hour sit could feel HARD by half-way in, and am sure that the Day of Zen was something of an endurance exercise for me.

But the body adapts quickly enough, particularly with the aid of a competent teacher. So suggestion number one is to have a teacher or very experienced student help you get over the fear of sitting on the zafu and find a few sitting postures you will find fairly comfortable. This is helpful even if you do not participate in long sitting sessions, as even a ten-minute sit will benefit from a posture that doesn't lend itself to intense discomfort.

I also think there's something to be said for having a change of clothes handy for samu (work practice), and maybe even a gym towel. That way you're not sitting in the dojo covered in sweat. This wasn't technically a problem for me yesterday, but my damp shirt in the chilly air was a cause of concern for the host. And part of practice with sangha is to act in such a manner that you do not bring disturbance to others.

I also noted later in the day that things would have been simpler for me if I'd had some sandal-type shoes to put on at various times. This was actually suggested prior to the event, but I simply do not own any.

During extended sitting, the body will require some attendance. Your feet may fall asleep, joints and muscles can protest, not to mention sniffles, itches, etc.

No body has ever, to my knowledge, died of an itchy nose during zazen, so I'd say just be aware of your annoyance until it and/or the itch passes. But if your body position is cutting off blood to your right foot (a common problem with me), try to change quietly to a secondary position for a while, as this is a legitimate body need.

If you experience genuine PAIN, attend to it. Pain is your body's way of telling you that something's outside normal operating parameters, and zen practice is not about harming yourself.

Maintain an attitude of poise as best you can. When you screw up, which is particularly common in the early learning experience, mental self-abuse is not a helpful response. As needed, look to experienced practitioners in the room and follow their lead. When in doubt, gassho and try not to literally slam into anyone.

half-day sesshin

I was a few minutes late this morning for the half-day sesshin starting at 7 a.m. I experienced more clock weirdness, so I had to choose between a bowl of matcha or punctuality.

So I made my matcha, and arrived at the dojo during what sounded like the incense ceremony (meaning I was just barely late). So I sat in seiza on the porch outside the dojo so as not to interrupt the first zazen period.

Note: Sitting in seiza on bare wood is a noticeably different experience from sitting on a relatively comfy zabuton.

What must've been about half an hour later, someone opened the door and I entered to join in kinhin. For the next several hours we practiced zazen, kinhin, samu, just a little liturgical ceremony, and mondo (question/answer). Zazen was the main practice, and samu was for a few hours following a (simplified oryoki) breakfast of genmai and tea (not to be confused with the tea genmai cha, which I also happen to enjoy).

Noble Silence was broken for a tasty lunch and plenty of conversation ranging from the serious to the outright zany.

I am quite impressed with the newcomers to zen who stuck it out through several hours of what must have been very challenging effort. When I started doing this a little over a decade back, I weaned myself onto it gently enough for the most part, with sitting sessions ranging from ten minutes to an hour. These were some real troopers!

I intend to participate with this sangha regularly.

I feel that this group and tradition are both well-suited to me in a variety of ways. I believe this will prove the case over time and will support my home practice considerably.

Introduction to Zen Workshop

Today was the workshop, and like every other Intro to Zen Workshop, it was unlike every other Intro to Zen Workshop. heh

The dojo was really packed with people, and I get the impression that the sesshin will also be at or near capacity tomorrow.

This workshop was unique in my experience if only because of the sheer volume of lecture material presented. I've always found them to be quite practice-focused.

When I first arrived (nearly half an hour late due to complications from the moving process), I sat in a chair, as it was the seat nearest the entrance. At first break I made the move to something more to my liking so I could sit in seiza posture with alternating periods of a modified half lotus for maximum comfort.

Chairs were commonly in use at the beginning of the day, but by the end of the workshop, everyone who had stuck around to the end (nearly everyone) had migrated to zafus and the like.

I am genuinely impressed with the number of people who came to the workshop as their first introduction to Zen but intend to participate in sesshin. Rock on, y'all!

moving, and sitting

Monday I closed on the house I've been buying for weeks.

From el casa de padre

The first furniture I brought to the house was a zafu & zabuton. (The second, not pictured, is a kneeling bench.)

I've been moving things from the old house to the new one all week with considerable help from family, and expect professional movers to play a significant role in things tomorrow.

Then comes the weekend Zen workshop & sesshin, followed by two more days off from work to settle in.

Although I am planning for practice space in the house, I hope I'll cultivate a habit of practice with local sangha and more/longer practice opportunities such as sesshin.

I suspect that neither daily nor intensive practice alone lead to the results of both daily and intensive practice. Same for solo & group.

upcoming zen workshop & sesshin

Next weekend I will participate in an "INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM" workshop from 8:30-5:00 Saturday and half-day sesshin on Sunday at the Jackson Zen Dojo.

I have participated in several introductions to Zen in various places, all in the same tradition. They provide great opportunities to practice with and learn from a teacher in a non-intimidating way, focusing on basics of practice.

I don't know just yet what the specific sesshin schedule will be, but in a general sense I know to expect plenty of zazen, kinhin (walking zazen), and possibly some samu (mindful work practice).

For me, a typical zazen session when practicing alone means setting a meditation timer for a set period of time with a few audible reminders to return to mindfulness in case my mind wanders during the session. If I am practicing for longer than one session, I will generally choose sessions of around 25 minutes in zazen practice with kinhin between sessions.

Time is precious over the upcoming week, as I am closing on and moving into a house by my office, but I hope to practice zazen quite a bit in preparation for sesshin.

a few comments (still in Lesson One)

It gets easier.

I'd gotten out of the habit of a daily practice for quite some time, so while the material and practice are not new to me, I still experience my body and mental processes enduring some training.

The first session was the most challenging, and there was plenty enough of wanting the session to reach a timely end. This is very normal, and shouldn't discourage one from continuing the practice. Over even the first few sessions, concentration deepens and the practice becomes more natural.

Behaving in a manner that supports meditation:

Starting with the first instructional CD, one is introduced to a few behavioral suggestions intended to help with the practice. They are simple guidelines such as avoiding saying harmful things that may lead to troubled thoughts and difficulty concentrating during practice.

If you completely disregard these, I believe it's safe to say that your practice will be more difficult. If you have gotten yourself into trouble during the course of your daily life, that troubled mind will still be with you as you engage in your practice session. It's not that practice will be impossible, but the frustrations you've introduced can make it hard to relax and focus on the task at hand.

Workbook exercises:

Due to time constraints, I had been practicing the guided meditations for a few days before I made it to the exercises at the end of Lesson One in the workbook.

My impression now is that someone completely new to Insight Meditation practice may benefit from not only listening to the audio instruction for Lesson One (a few times, I'd suggest) but also read through the workbook introduction and Lesson One through the exercises before starting the guided meditations.

This might also be of value to someone looking to race through the coursework as quickly as possible for whatever reasons. (And I can think of a few perfectly good reasons one might wish to do so off-hand.)

The reason for this is that the exercises may be performed during the guided meditation sessions. The guided meditations aren't of the "Now imagine you're walking along a solitary beach..." variety, but simply a dharma teacher gently coaching you through a practice session just as would happen on retreat.

How to make my own zafu and zabuton

The following is a post I made on the 43things website when I noticed several people have set goals of making a zafu and zabuton.

"After tracking down plans and materials, it took two people a matter of hours to produce multiple zafu and zabuton sets."

How I did it: I made both zafu and zabuton several years ago as a weekend project with my mother. We found a few common designs on the internet (which can still be found easily via your preferred search engine) and compared them against the zafu and zabuton I already owned. We already had most of the fabric required, sewing machines, and a few other items. We obtained buckwheat hulls and kapok from a few different sources (not difficult to obtain at all).

As I wanted to carry my zabuton easily, one zabuton we made is a two-panel design with handles on the outer edges. I just tuck the zafu and smile cushion (made at the same time, filled with buckwheat hulls) inside. And as cotton is a local crop, and my mother grew up on a cotton farm, we obtained cotton seed hulls with plenty of cotton still attached, and made a few cushions from this material as well. But dealing with raw cotton is not for the timid, as boll weavils are a problem my mother just happened to know how to deal with.

Lessons & tips: Measure twice, and cut once.

Sit on cusions of various sizes first, if you can, so you know more about what the final product should be like.

You will probably use either kapok or buckwheat, but they are totally different experiences. Try both first if you can, so you can know what will suit you.

Resources: Your preferred search engine can provide everything you need. But we also obtained some materials through a local supplier of goods for furniture construction.

Carolina Morning Designs (zafu.net) was glad to supply the rest of the raw materials. I'm certain many other reputable vendors can be found online, as well.

It took me 2 days.

It made me quite pleased

See more progress on: Make my own zafu and zabuton

My second 45-minute sitting session for Lesson One was last night.

The individual taking the course is the ultimate decision-maker in how often to sit, for how long, at what time of day, etc.

For now, at least, I'm taking Sharon's advice of spending at least 7 days in the practice part of each lesson. I sit on a zafu and zabuton, with a couple of other small cushions to produce a seated position that works well for me.

I've been starting at or just after 9 p.m., which is convenient for me in that it allows time for local noise and other distractions to become minimal.

You can practice Vipassana in the middle of tremendous distraction, and noisy neighbors will likely factor into the equation this weekend, but at least the first two nights were characterized by Sharon's voice and the rhythmic whir of the ceiling fan above me.

To my near astonishment, the cat hasn't been pestering me during these sessions, but if he begins to do so, I'll do my best to roll with it.

first comments on the course

The course arrived Tuesday morning, and I spent a good bit of the evening ripping the lessons to my Zune, as I'm on the go a lot and also wanted the most convenient possible way to play the guided meditation parts.

Everything from the box itself to the workbook and discs were surprisingly professional in appearance and composition. That's always a plus, although I'd have been content with something just cheaply slapped together, to be honest.

I've played the Lesson 1 audio material a few times now, mainly during my drive to/from work, and sat with the Lesson 1 guided meditation session on mindfulness of breathing and hearing last night (a 45-minute sitting session, which I understand to be the norm for this series).

Initially, I'm digging the approach to both the lessons (supplemented in the workbook) and the guided meditation. I don't have to watch a clock or remember to set a meditation timer with these, as you're informed when it's done just as though you were in a dharma center. In fact, with eyes closed and Sharon's voice in my Zune headphones, the sitting session was essentially indistinguishable from one in a dharma center.

The lesson content sounds a lot like a planned dharma talk from a Vipassana teacher, so the whole experience really is very much like sitting with sangha.

Insight Meditation: An In-Depth Correspondence Course

I was first introduced to Insight Meditation (aka Vipassana) in the mid-1990s shortly after completing my Bachelor's in Psychology.

It really fit me quite well, and I learned a fair little bit about Insight, Zen, and related areas of study & practice.

Over the next several weeks I will be moving and settling into a new home, and decided to mark the transition by working through Insight Meditation: An In-Depth Correspondence Course by Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein.

A more detailed breakdown of the lessons is found at Tools for Wellness (with which I'm not personally familiar as a vendor).

My basic understanding is that the course takes at least about three months to complete, but may be completed over a longer period of time based on personal pace.

One can be introduced to the basics of Insight in a variety of ways, ranging from 10-day bootcamp-like retreats to series of lessons in a group environment. I've never participated in a multiple day retreat before, although I have participated in a number of day-long retreats.

The approach I'll be taking here will be, to some extent, a return to familiar territory. But I won't be surprised if I find I'm introduced to newer or deeper experience with Vipassana in the process.

I intend to share some comments in this blog as I progress through the series, and I hope someone finds a bit of something worthwhile here.