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To Join either the Sunday afternoon 4-5:30pm (Jan 5th, Jan 18th, Feb 1st and Feb 15th) online sessions
Or the 6-7am daily sessions.
Remember this is Australian eastern Daylight time. (NSW / Victoria time)
Here is the link
If you have any problems joining, please email
"Meditation is not what you think"
I only found out recently that Leaonard spent 5 years in a Zen monastry. Always liked his music.
I have always struggled to suitably answer, why I sit, for anyone that does ask the question.
I know I am drawn to it, it feels right, I want to, but people always expect a list of outcomes etc.
And there is the notion that you are in another dimension or super relaxed and not here, when you are actually more here than ever and for relaxation I'd rather go for a massage by the beach than a sesshin :-)
Still looking for a suitable answer........
()
Dave
Dear summer sitters I very much enjoy meditation as a group
I am still with you
but I am sitting in the evenings.
I spent much of the morning sessions
So I have returned to my usual evening practice for now.
Sounds like you're listening to your body and sitting when makes sense for you, that's great :) Good to still be sitting with you at different ends of the day. I hope your sitting is going well (how can it not be?) 🙏
At our Sunday gathering, some of you asked about the first vow in Great Vows for All -
"The many beings areanumberless, I vow to save them."
How can I save the many beings?
Susan Murphy Roshi in her book "Upside- down Zen" tells us that the translation word 'save' could also be rendered 'wake'. What is it to wake the many beings? Can we wake them if we do not acknowledge them and welcome them in our world? Awareness, then, has something to do with saving the many beings. When 'We put down our sticks' as Susan Griffiths shares in her poem; wow, here we are, and the many beings are numberless.
After sitting this morning, I went for my usual walk around McLaren Dam - just a pond really-and I noticed the ducks- 2 different species- the swamp hens and the cormorants all enjoying the early sun together.…
A strange and not so poetic collection of words following my sit with sangha this morning:
"Put down your sticks
the earth has come to a standstill
nothing is asked
the next line of this poem is emptiness"
Thank you sangha for arriving each morning, thank you Dave, thank you Jazz, thank you Deborah x