Keeping faithful to the sit

How do you manage to keep still?

Almost a month after my latest Vipassana sitting, I found myself drifting during sitting times.  Three days ago, I was restlessly shifting and waiting when the hour is up.   I could hear Goenkaji’s telling me to simply “observe”…  I told myself to discover the colors and shapes of anica.

In between work,  when am not formally sitting, I actively observe the sensations and I still get both the pleasant and unpleasant sensations.  I have to restrain myself from ‘playing’ with it.

More and more, I hatched some escape routes to the sit.  Some as applied to me are the following:

1.  Saying yes to all night activities.  This would make me skip from my night sits.   Remedy:  Do a lunch sitting.  I tried doing this once, it did very well.   

2.  Sleeping in.  Excessive nocturnal activities tempt you to sleep in.  This prevents you to do a proper morning sit as work takes over when the sun rises up so high.

3.  Topsy turvy room.  Yes Kins, please clean up your room.  :-)

For a trying hard meditator, I choose to continue in this effort to be more regular and faithful to the practice. 

Metta!

My thoughts on Vipassana

(Dhamma server: April 25-May 6, 2012, Cebu City, Philippines)

 

before dawn strikes, we were up for the serving... 

 

our lunch in one of the meditation days...

1.        The secret of it all lies on the tip of our nose, the gateway of our breath.

2.       We all have our paths to tread. 

3.       The type of journey or travel we take in life is dependent on our self-awareness.

4.       Noble silence is a requisite to gaining awareness.

5.       Detachment is a path to happiness.

6.       Detachment is a challenge in many forms.  Most of it, we find difficult to let go as it is in our list of ‘goodness’.

7.       Our craving to the habit patterns of the mind is a strong enemy we need to battle daily.

8.       Self-discipline is a requisite to it all.  It does not come easy. 

9.       We have to work things out.

10.   The egos that we have can mushroom into bigger forms in the pretext of humility.

11.   Being dependent on others for directions and sustenance can be very scary.

12.   As to when we get out of the real misery, we really don’t know.  But the best step takes place when we somehow understood it all.

13.   We always have our own personal motivation to serve in a course.  For whatever reason, we get purified in the process if we are just open to it.

14.   Serving either inflates or deflates our egos.  Let us be mindful.

15.   We should always start again.