I am up painfully early, especially for a Sunday, and have been whiling away several hours doing nothing but tea-ing. I was doing some mandatory printing of documents to help out D, and the printer ran out of ink. Thankfully.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed and excited about the mountains of work I have for this autumn: HGO, classes, lessons, coachings, and much fun creating recordings and original music for Toni's performance piece at DiverseWorks.
Very thrilled about this coming week’s recording session with Herr R and gang.
So I get these little Daily Dharma nuggets in my mailbox every morning. The one below, I like because it is the same about the practice of preparing the way for music to happen: I don't practice music, I practice the craft of creating a path for music to visit...
Tricycle's Daily Dharma: August 27, 2006
Awareness cannot be practiced.
Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.
- Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Back from the weeklong trip to NY and NE. Tired and, as expected, having difficulties resuming my usual level of practice, discipline, activity. Motivation low.
House is clean. Tea is taken. On to practice.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed and excited about the mountains of work I have for this autumn: HGO, classes, lessons, coachings, and much fun creating recordings and original music for Toni's performance piece at DiverseWorks.
Very thrilled about this coming week’s recording session with Herr R and gang.
So I get these little Daily Dharma nuggets in my mailbox every morning. The one below, I like because it is the same about the practice of preparing the way for music to happen: I don't practice music, I practice the craft of creating a path for music to visit...
Tricycle's Daily Dharma: August 27, 2006
Awareness cannot be practiced.
Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.
- Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Back from the weeklong trip to NY and NE. Tired and, as expected, having difficulties resuming my usual level of practice, discipline, activity. Motivation low.
House is clean. Tea is taken. On to practice.
raindog, thanks so much for your kind words, I really appreciate it. If you navigate back to the Hazard Factor site, Dave is definitely the guitar teacher you'd want to work with if you are in the New Port Richey area...I don't know of any other path that mirrors Zen quite as well as music...
ReplyDeleteyou know, I keep saying I'm a writer and it's true I have written and, well, I do write, but it's not going right now. It's not working. Although I did, actually, figure out why one story was not working, which is its own victory and its own motivation for the rewrite.
ReplyDeleteand this has to do with your blog how? it's the making the path to writing, it's the preparing the way for the stories to appear. I think that is something I've forgotten.
I'll have to sit with that notion a bit, at the very least be mindful (heh) of it next time I sit down to work on that rewrite . . .
Neil-y! I love when you post to my blog!
ReplyDeleteI find that keeping a vigilant 'trust the process' attitude helps me avoid the pitfalls of being attached to the outcome of the work- and that itself, is a process...