Exploration 36 - Homework/Practice for week 4th-10th December

Summary of the homework taken from the workshop transcript........

Stim Morane: Here's an exercise for aliveness:
Stim Morane: pick a day when you have a couple of hours free ...
Stim Morane: I hope somewhere in your schedules this is possible
Stim Morane: :)
Stim Morane: when the time comes, just get a sheet of paper, and write out a hundred words on how your life seems to you
Stim Morane: the world, circumstances, your sense of self ...
Stim Morane: then put it aside, sit in a comfy chair (not in some formal crosslegged posture), and just settle into breathing.
Stim Morane: Spend time just converging on being breathing ...
Stim Morane: not a formal practice, not a technique, but just what it actually is, what is actually present ...
Stim Morane: and include everything else that arises too, thoughts, emotions, MEMORIES, etc
Stim Morane: but stay with the breathing aspect, and let it open up (not be constrained by your ideas of what breathing is).
Stim Morane: we talked about this before, in a previous session
Stim Morane: but do this for several hours!
Stim Morane: you can wriggle around, stand up if necessary, even walk a bit, relax, and then sit down again and continue.

Stim Morane: 100 words, then sit and breath, with little breaks, for several hours.

Stim Morane: THEN get another sheet of paper ...
Stim Morane: write out how life, the world, your circumstances then and there, etc seem to you.
Stim Morane: 100 wordxs
Stim Morane: words
Stim Morane: :)
Stim Morane: then compare the two accounts

Stim Morane: Look at the differences.
Stim Morane: Yes, three exercises, really
Stim Morane: Consider the differences carefull
Stim Morane: carefully

Stim Morane: write from how you feel in each case
Stim Morane: then describe the differences to yourself ...
Stim Morane: this is basically another exercise ... articulate the diffs
Stim Morane: then drop it all for the day and go have fun

Stim Morane: you have what you have, what you see there
Stim Morane: that could well be very fun
Stim Morane: but it might also be very sad, or uncertain, or angry ...
Stim Morane: :)
Stim Morane: we are usually lost in the story of the ordinary sense of self, and have basically no connection to our living natures.
Stim Morane: this can be regained, a little, even in this one several hour session.
Stim Morane: with some care about being explicit re what you were, then shifted to, diffs etc
Stim Morane: this is not a meditation practice in the ordinary sense.
Stim Morane: Clear enough?

Stim Morane: so I'm descrbing a basic one-time practice, yes.
Stim Morane: very basic
Stim Morane: in several senses
Stim Morane: but you actually HAVE TO DO IT