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Goals/Life Update - Day 719/1001
Jun. 19th, 2016 06:56 pmNever mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. - Sandra Carey
Goals Completed: 22
Goals in Progress: 26
I have completed the goal of staying at a Zen monastery for a week (#21), and it was an insightful experience. There was a lot of structure, most of which I had to learn, in almost every way. I was a child, a beginner, learning everything and being nonjudgmentally taught everything after I failed to understand. There was some silence times (#20), called Noble Silence. There was oryoki (a formal zen breakfast ritual), there was zazen practice every day, there was constantly-shifting work and service and devotion. There was constant learning and reading and doing. Everything was a mindfulness exercise, including eating (#14), moving, cleaning, gardening, and sleeping (#16). I also unknowingly managed to be at the monastery during one of the most difficult seminars the monastery teaches, Transforming the Inner Critic. This worked the mind in two days as hard as the body for the previous five days.
I have written June’s haiku (#19). I have read several books available in the monastery library, including The Unfettered Mind (#17), The Zen Way to the Martial Arts, and No Matter Where You Are, There You Go (#18). I have bowed a lot, smiled a lot, sat in seiza a lot, and thought a lot. I was both a little sad and angry that I had to leave and return to my regular life. I clearly need more spiritual practice, that I had gotten slowly away from that since I’ve returned from Texas. Time to start improving that. I will seek that level of structure and support and learning again.
Goals Completed: 22
Goals in Progress: 26
I have completed the goal of staying at a Zen monastery for a week (#21), and it was an insightful experience. There was a lot of structure, most of which I had to learn, in almost every way. I was a child, a beginner, learning everything and being nonjudgmentally taught everything after I failed to understand. There was some silence times (#20), called Noble Silence. There was oryoki (a formal zen breakfast ritual), there was zazen practice every day, there was constantly-shifting work and service and devotion. There was constant learning and reading and doing. Everything was a mindfulness exercise, including eating (#14), moving, cleaning, gardening, and sleeping (#16). I also unknowingly managed to be at the monastery during one of the most difficult seminars the monastery teaches, Transforming the Inner Critic. This worked the mind in two days as hard as the body for the previous five days.
I have written June’s haiku (#19). I have read several books available in the monastery library, including The Unfettered Mind (#17), The Zen Way to the Martial Arts, and No Matter Where You Are, There You Go (#18). I have bowed a lot, smiled a lot, sat in seiza a lot, and thought a lot. I was both a little sad and angry that I had to leave and return to my regular life. I clearly need more spiritual practice, that I had gotten slowly away from that since I’ve returned from Texas. Time to start improving that. I will seek that level of structure and support and learning again.
