Lamees, Victoria and I attented a week-long Vipassana retreat led by Jack Kornfield. The retreat was held at the Mentalphysics Institute, in Yucca Valley. Being a silent retreat the work was that much more intensive and deep.
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The desert of yourself
in meditation
blossoms
“if you believe your mind you might risk losing it”
“touch whatever comes with clarity and compassion”
long day
walking meditation alternating with sitting
desert is beautiful
this year we did not make it out as much as
we usually do
quite a few hare
large and small
running all around
sitting at times painful
then fine
the usual
Jack Kornfield’s dhamma talk wonderful mix of dhamma
anecdotes jokes and poetry
one of his most touching quotes from the desert fathers
…what to do if a monk falls asleep, shake him? No, allow his
head to rest on your lap…
half the night ok other half not
walked labyrinth after breakfast
then desert…found crystal
good sitting session today
pain there but trying to focus on it
as well as breath as return to nowness
body…
sound breath body pain
all transitory
all changing
all impermanent…
“the better way of living alone”
do not dwell in the past
do not fret about future
live in present, now, moment…
in body not in mind’s constructions
schedule is good
sit and walk
sit and walk
sit and walk and eat
and walk and sit and walk…
Dhamma talk on pain
Recognize it and let it be
but provide space for it
to dissipate
as much space as needed
expand as it it needs to
expand beyond all limits
don’t focalize it and
concentrate it into one
spot or area
walk in desert
cougar tracks?
An odd cactus
bare with long sharp spines
“develop a meditation that is like water”
“without wisdom you can do nothing for others,
you remain in the perfection of wisdom, which is
the awareness that what you are doing is both
essential and illusory.” Prajnaparamita
the rattle of creosote
and pointedness of cholla
dry apparently dead sticks grow green
and blossom…miniscule flowers bud
out of invisible stalks
the desert is alive with smells
even as it seems still and dessicated
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