I have a sesshin coming up in a few weeks. This time I will be starting on a Wednesday. (here they recommend you sort of work your way up to a full week).
Last year I did a Friday through Sunday and it was the second hardest thing I've ever done in my life! I remember it was hot. I kept thinking how much easier it would be if it wasn't so hot, then I remember thinking what an idiot I was for thinking such a thing. I don't think I ever did get around to not-thinking. They teach there that when the pain or discomfort begins to really distract your from your practice, then you make that "discomfort" to be the object of your practice. So you focus on the pain, and you "become the pain." As wierd as it sounds, it works, because if you ARE pain you can't be IN pain. When I was sitting there swetting like crazy, and my knees were aching, I was more concentrated than I'd ever been. Damn near knocked the attention deficit disorder right out of me! I've been more regular about sitting and I even sit cross-legged while watching movies (at home) or reading. I started doing it just to prepare my legs but found that it made it easier to concentrate. Even with movies... Now I'm not going "wait wait.. why did Pantaloni whack his brother Ravioli again? Why are those people kissing? I thought they hated each other..." When I lie in bed and read books I fall asleep. So it's best to sit up cross legged I've found. When I'm ready to go to bed I lie down and read. And so you don't think that all this pain stuff is macho talk, I will say that in sesshin you can sit in a chair if you want. I just find that cross-legged is best, so I am trying to acclimate myself to it. I've been doing this pretty solidly for about a year now and my legs work fine. The longest I've sat on my own is four hours. If you've done sesshin or sesshins, what have you done to prepare for it? I probably will curb my reading, and TV watching, and up my sitting. I haven't been listening to the radio or music much, but that's becuase my CD player got stolen out of my car. The Bodhisattvas who broke into my car deemed it necessary that I spend my 90 minute commute to work in silence. -DaveK ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get to your groups with one click. Know instantly when new email arrives http://us.click.yahoo.com/.7bhrC/MGxNAA/yQLSAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
