4.4.09

ZAZEN & INSECURITY 98662

The good news is the whole family joined me for sitting last night, and noone passed out and slid off their zafu.

I have been reading Thich Nhat Hanh's (TNH) "A Pebble For Your Pocket" to the kids after the evening sitting and in that book TNH describes many breath meditations. During sitting ZMH was struggling to remember "Breathing in, present moment, breathing out, wonderful moment" and asked me to help her out.
Before I could reply the PoC repeated it verbatim. This both surprised and impressed me. What I felt as a pleasant sensation, ZMH felt as unpleasant. ZMH began to cry on the zafu and I asked what is wrong. She said "Iris is smarter than me, she is always reminding me of stuff like to put toothpaste on the toothbrush and where socks with shoes." I took her onto my lap, held her and tried to explain to her that everyone has their own unique qualities, and that while yes Iris has the quality of discerning wisdom, you have the quality of equanimity. Than I had to describe what discerning wisdom and equanimity meant before we got back to sitting...


This morning I decided to sleep in till 0500 and sacrificed my first sitting period. ZMH woke immediately and the PoC decided to sleep more. The wife joined for the last five minuets of sitting. ZMH and I had some Raisin Bran and genmaicha then I got ready for work, hugs, and more tea to go.

Lots of fog on the way into the office. Lots of cars without lights on too.

Belly still sensitive, but tolerable. Got to count stuff again today...Joy!

5 comments:

Lauren said...

For some reason this brought to mind Schrodinger's Cat. The statement from PoC was neither pleasing nor upsetting until considerations wrestled with it. Schrodinger's Cat is a theory of quantum physics which postulates that the state of a particle is indeterminate until someone strives to observe it. It sounds magical, but it might just simply be "true."

SlowZen said...

Ah,
In the Wikipedia entry on Schrodinger's Cat it mentions Quantum entanglement.
Kind of reminds me of
this

Unknown said...

Your adventures in family sitting are so heart warming. Of course that is my own projection but I'm going with it.

I can identify with ZMH as I can't remember TNH's simple breath meditations either. I get confused so easily. I prefer the even simpler technique of breath counting should I need a upaya to bring me back to just sitting.

Diomedies said...

It always sounds like you have such a great family! I'm so happy that you all love each other so much.

peace :)

SlowZen said...

Hey Will, pleasant projections are allays welcome.

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Diomedies,

Thanks, we have pleasant days, neutral days, and unpleasant days, just like everyone else.

But thank you for your kind words!

Thanks for looking!