Special "Caring for all" Tonglen Practice Circle #7

[Kokuu]

This Sunday, 10 May 2020, there will be another special guided Tonglen Practice Circle for anyone who wishes to do taking and sending practice for themselves and everyone affected by the current world situation and the fear that goes with it.

This event will occur in the Scheduled Sitting Room (SSR) at 8pm UK time (BST/UST+1) and last for around 35 minutes.

World Times are:

Anchorage (AKDT): 11am
LA (PDT): 12pm
Phoenix (MDT): 1pm
Houston (CDT): 2pm
New York (EDT): 3pm
London (BST/UST+1): 8pm
Paris/Berlin (UST+2): 9pm
Kyiv (UST+3): 10pm
Bangkok (UST+7): 2am (Monday)
Tokyo (UST+9): 4am (Monday)
Canberra (UST+11): 6am (Monday)
Wellington (UST+13): 8am (Monday)

We hope to see you all there. With Zoom there is plenty of space!

Deep bows,

Kokuu & Washin

[Tai Shi]

This is important for me; I will set an alarm on Alexa for 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10, 2020.
sat
will set
Sit
Deep bows
Tai Shi

[Yokai]

Thank you Kokuu and Jason for sharing compassion practice.

It's a skill I need to work on. Such focused visualization is quite a shift of gears from Shikantaza. Is that something others find?

Very worthwhile.

Gassho, Chris stlah

[Kokuu]

Thank you for joining, Chris.

Yes, it definitely has a different feel to the dropping away and resting in everything that is quality of shikantaza. Visualisation is more active and it takes a while to build that skill.

However, I would say that the important thing to feel is both the suffering of others and the metta and kindness we are sending out. As long as we can touch that part of the practice, how good we make the visualisation is less important.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Tai Shi]

Yes Kokuu, this was important to me, in fact, very important to me. However, I have a little good mews. It was always the opiates that concerned me. However, it was actually, my anti-psychotic medication that was the problem. I am 40 mg gown from an extremely potent drug, Geodon, and I am now I can actually think. It seems memory will no longer be a problem, and both my rheumatologist and my primary care doctor say I am as pain controlled as I ever will be. Yesterday my friend, AA sponsor, and trusted friend, and Mel and I took a 2 mile (3.22 km) walk, maintaining 1.8 meters, and shouting at each other, we had a great time, and my AA friend Jay called while Mel and I were walking and Jay was on speaker phone. It was like a mini AA meeting with three old friends. I have known these men for more than 25 years, and we have sobriety to thank for this, our whole lives we have been sober together, and I love them both. In the beginning we were acquaintances and yet now we are friends, unlikely friends. So many miracles in my life because on one simple step taken July 22nd, 1987, "I will not drink today." This is the first step in recovery. The idea that someday, somehow I could drink like other people was smashed. The truth was that with the very first drink I could not drink like other people, long before bipolar was in my vocabulary, long before the thought of psychiatry, or therapy; really when I was no more than a boy then, but on July 22nd, 1987, I became a 35-year-old man, I chose not to drink that day. And, I chose not in the chaos of each succeeding day, not to drink each day for each day was an entirely new day, a day in which I chose not to drink the first drink. Really that's all it takes is one day at a time. This, I'm sure is no revelation to Zen folk, but to an alcoholic, it is beginning each day anew. How can one forget, amongst another chaos, the need to outrun this pandemic, Oh, we never will. Someday after this catastrophe, humans will or will not survive. It's not important, There are other designs in nature of which we are not a part. Just look at the stars. Who could wonder? Well, I started be telling you that my friends and I took a walk, and we were together because of technology. So, we had an AA meeting without Big Book, and coffee, but with yet another miracle of being together. So today I am tired, and I fell asleep during Sunday Sit, and didn't wake up for another 1/2 hour, so today I am tired but not muddled in my head, I am clearly tired, and I slept through Tonglen, and I'm sorry, dear friend, and I understand how you can sleep through 18 hours and not be rested, but bleary-eyed try to answer tour e-mail. Don't forget Kokuu, we had an auspicious beginning with you 10,000 mi (ca. 16,093 km) away. Ah, yes, you don't have to live half-way around the globe to be my friend, and really, it does not make a difference where one lives. I understand the International Space Station is yet circling this earth. This is another miracle in my lifetime, that humans have walked on our moon (in a poem, something about a robber being unable to see the beautiful moon.), Well, I can see, and this makes me happy. Yes, I missed lunch, and everything up until about 3 p.m. And, I'm sorry, dear Kokuu, but I was tired. I will try not to let it happen again.
Tai Shi
sat/ lah
Gassho

[Jippou]

Thank you Kokuu and Chris. It was a wonderful experience. Like I said, I’ve never done tonglin before and I thought the visualization aspect was quite powerful, particularly since I am in a place that’s making international news for the number of Covid cases due to the meat packing industry. It was quite easy to picture people in my mind, because I know people who work there (At least in passing)! I also found it helpful to show
Compassion to myself because I’m not very good at it.

Gassho,
Sat today, Jason


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