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