I enjoyed watching the light fill the zendo for both periods of zazen, a warm yellowy light at 6:30 as the sun was inching up behind the buildings, and a full white light at 9:25. It is a beautiful warm day here today.
With a residents' meeting, and thus no oryoki, the schedule was a little more relaxed today as well. Grace Schireson came to give the lecture, and the chattering consensus afterwards was that it was a refreshing and enlivening talk. It brought forward a couple of issues for me which I will try to write about later.
Another highlight of the morning for me was giving posture adjustments during the second period. I do these almost every Saturday now, and while I wouldn't claim to be getting any better at them, I appreciate having the opportunity to lay hands on mostly the same people week after week. I have come to know who is likely to respond easily to a particular touch or pressure, and who is stiffer and a little more unyielding, though they too might relax into uprightness with the right encouragement. What often happens is that I look around the room before I sit down again afterwards, and find that people are leaning the way they were before I adjusted them; it's what their bodies are used to doing. I just hope that everyone gets to experience moments, as I do myself very occasionally, where the body is in just the right posture to allow the energy of the present to flow unimpeded.
2 comments:
As one of your stiffer clients (it's me, Shannon) I can report with much gratitude that as a result of your adjustment I experienced just what you hoped for. I attended the beginner's sitting the day after you adjusted me. I spent most of my day focusing on keeping my chin and shoulders in the exact position you had placed them. After two sittings of shakiness and wobbling it happened... absence of body. It felt very much like the first time I actually quieted my thoughts. Having the opportunity to EXPERIENCE that suspension is a great gift- both as a model AND as hope on those mornings when it feels like all I'm doing is telling myself to sit up straight and stop thinking. Thank you Shundo.
Hi Shannon,
Glad to know it is you after all, and very glad to hear that you had a good experience in the beginners' sitting. I had a nice moment this morning as well, despite being incredibly sleepy - just for a second something in my back stopped feeling like armour plating and felt like it was allowing things to be as they are. Then I was sleepy again...
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