100 Zazen Days

day eight

2006-05-05T08:58:00.000-04:00

i'm working from home today so i should have the opportunity to sit at any time during the day i feel i need a break.

update: i sat "maximum practice" zazen this afternoon for 25 minutes. struggled a bit with the sleep trance like state that i get into almost everytime i sit, but overall it was an ok sitting. like i really should be judging my sittings good or not so good. i suppose no matter what challenges i think i had, the sitting is always "good".

day seven

2006-05-04T15:33:00.000-04:00

i plan to sit zazen tonight at 8pm. i want to try and do it earlier so i won't be tempted to be caught up in watching the boob tube and then get laxidasical about actually getting up and sitting.

if i can set a schedule up in the evenings where i get ready to meditate right after amy has been put to bed and the dog is walked, i think it would go a long way towards developing a little dicipline in my practice.

update: i ended up sitting "minimum practice" zazen. while dd6 was getting ready for bed, i sat on my zafu in her room for about 10 minutes. i added more kapok to my zafu and it feels much better now.

day six

2006-05-04T01:25:00.000-04:00

sat zazen for a solid 20 minutes tonight on my buckwheat zafu in my meditation corner of the guest room/office. i increased my time by 5 minutes on purpose. i need to work my way back up to 40 minutes.

my mind was an unrelenting wild monkey tonight. if it wasn't thinking and planning it was sleepy and dreamy. it was a challenging sitting for sure.

day five

2006-05-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

i plan to sit zazen tonight around 9pm after my dw goes to sleep.

update: sat a solid 15 minutes tonight on my kapok zafu in my meditation corner off the guest room/office. i think i'm arching my lower back forward too much. i really start to feel stress and pain on my lower right side pretty much right away. that doesn't seem right. this past sesshin niosho came up behind me and touched my lower back indicating that it needed to arch a little more so i've been trying to do that now at home. i'll just see how it goes day to day.

at my next opportunity for dokusan, i'm going to bring my zafu with me and have niosho tell me what else i can do better with as far as my zazen posture is concerned.

day four

2006-05-01T10:45:00.000-04:00

plan to sit this evening after dinner.

update: sat a proper, formal zazen period tonight. it was only a 15 minute sitting, but at least i sat. i really didn't want to sit. i was so wiped out from work today that i just wanted to go to sleep.

day three

2006-05-01T01:37:00.000-04:00

sat "minimum practice" zazen today. not too happy about that. would have liked to have sat a good solid formal zazen period of 30 minutes. but nonetheless, i sat on my zafu (buckwheat) and followed my breathing for at least 10 minutes as dd6 did her bedtime routine.

day two

2006-04-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

sat a formal period of zazen today for 15 minutes. tried using a combination of my kapok zafu and rectangle buckwheat neck pillow for an extra boost in hight. it seemed to work pretty well. i sat at 1pm while dw was sleeping on the day bed.

day one

2006-04-29T00:12:00.000-04:00

sat "minimum practice" zazen on my buckwheat zafu in the evening as dd6 was getting ready for bed.