Leeward Shore

Pre-sitting intention, 10:19PM: I plan to sit for 30 minutes. First I will do metta, settle in with three breaths, then closely follow my breath while sitting absolutely still.

Post-sitting review, 10:51PM: Okay, I only sat for 18 minutes before sloth and torpor visited me, and I started to nod. Note to Self: Gotta do this when energy level is high, in the morning!

This is the way I use my cushion, except I turn my zafu (round cushion) on end. Here's what a zafu looks like:

Why all the focus on cushions and posture? Because I have discovered that the comfort and stability of my posture coupled with absolutely no movement results in a high state of concentration if I consistently follow my breath without wavering.

The 45 minutes in Sangha this morning was amazing. By remembering to stay absolutely still while following my breath, I had these long moments where everything fell away, and I was just sitting, breathing. Nothing else! No thoughts, short or long. Just breathing, following, and stability. I did notice a difference as I remained perfectly still.

I was so stoked by this that I tried to replicate it at home after returning from Sangha. I think Rebecca thought I was crazy for sitting again! I could not retain the same degree of stillness nor could I experience that same, stable, focused state. I wonder if that was perhaps due to the fact that I was hopeful of achieving that state again? Hmmm...

Saturday's sit was short and perfunctory. But today, wow! I'm hungry for more practice and for reading to practice mindfulness (in a systematic way) after improving at entering the focused states as I experienced today.

So, this map represents an insight that I had this afternoon as I prepared for our book group discussion of No Self No Problem. I've been so hung up on understanding, selecting, or favoring a particular approach to deepening my meditation practice that at some points I was frustrated with the generalities of the book. And then yesterday, I read this comment by "muchtooloose" on The Automatic Earth--a blog I visit regularly:

"This is good advice," I thought to myself. "Perhaps I can bring this mindset to the rigid views I hold about Buddhist practice!" And then--lo and behold--Thubten uses the exact same analogy in tonight's reading in Chapter 7, only he's talking about personas instead of opinions. (Come to think of it, an opinion is just a subset of a persona!)

At any rate, I opened up to the reading and I realized that most schools are fundamentally the same when it comes to the essence of Awakening: realize the true nature of reality. And most of the differences involve the myriad ways of going about that! Shazam!

So, resting easy, I participated without view-holding in tonight's discussion. It was good, better than usual. Moreover, during the short sit at the end, something happened. Usually I'm churning over the discussion and trying to sort out, synthesize any ideas requiring process. Tonight--for the most part--I returned to pure concentration practice and held it right there for the entire sit!

For my next map, I want to articulate via image just where this concentration practice fits in the larger scheme of "realization of the true nature of reality." I have some general sense already, but I need to flesh it out.