reflections on my two morning meditation sessions at the won dharma center

this is the second day in a row that i’ve sat in on the morning meditation at the won dharma center. we’re on a colab staff retreat and since i missed out on the sits last time, i resolved myself to do them this time. they’ve been really good. some thoughts:

• sitting for an hour doesn’t feel that long sometimes… or maybe anymore at all?
• i got to use a meditation bench like the one i first used when at matt’s place in hercules. i really need to just make myself one.
• my sit today was much more difficult than yesterday’s because i’m tired. i don’t think i fell asleep (sitting upright on a bench makes it hard to fall asleep without noticing), but i did have to keep doing things to stay with my attention: scratch itches, change sitting positions, change mudras, pull or push my hands against each other intensely, crack my tailbone, open my eyes (gotta thank sharon salzberg for the tip around opening your eyes and bringing in more sensory inputs).
• today i noticed several parallels between some strands of christianity and this il-won buddhism morning session. there was a scripture reading, a long meditation (prayer), a short passage near the end of the meditation to provoke thought, a collective, rhytmic chant (simultaneous, verbal prayer), and a song (worship music).
• i learned that il-won means “one circle” and that il-won buddhism believes that all the world’s major religions have the same core. they are working towards helping people recognize this the world over. they definitely achieved something of that mission with me! and it’s partly what i’ve been thinking for a long time.
• there was one part of the morning chant that bothered me: “this is true, not false.” that felt real weird to me. whenever anything has to tell you that it is true, i am immediately suspicious…

all this is leading me more and more back towards my 19-20 year-old self monk inclinations… maybe i should get back in touch with patrick and johnny…

words / writing / post-processing
305w / 12min /