Report 43

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Gaya mentioned Ken McLeod which prompted a bit of websurfing and a listen to a lecture he gave at Kannonji in SL:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCT0HyqNAU (there are also some reflections on SL as a teaching medium -- http://musingsbyken.blogspot.com/200...fe-take-2.html )

One story struck me in particular:  a student felt it difficult to take in the suffering, and the teacher's reply was, "if you really could take away all the pain of the world with one breath, would you hesitate?"  This acknowledgement of our deep desire to take away pain for all seems to be part of the power of lojong -- just this simple recognition. 

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It's funny how the best meditation instruction for me is still the most basic -- variants of don't do anything, stop, allow, etc.  (in our last meeting,  Zen and Calvino made a related point about dropping ideas about possible meanings, Katherine about giving up hope).  "When practicing unconditional acceptance, start with yourself" feels like part of this instruction and it's surprising how often I go against it even while sitting -- "should be more like this, wow that was awful/great, how am I ever going to figure out ..."  I seem to be able to find these in any given 2 second stretch.  It can feel like a big risk to let go of that futzing, to allow what is happening to just stand there unadorned with little efforts.  Its really worth it though.