Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

Just letting you know the teaparty is at the same time and place.
Always sunday 21.00 (swedish time) always here.

And hopefully we will have some more info on the practicepartner bit to...

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Stephanie]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I have been missing The Tea Party the last couple of weeks because I have been using my Sundays to visit The American Museum of Natural History. Today is no exception, but should be my last visit. The funny thing is, I'm not even trying to see the whole museum! Anyway, I have been missing the Tea Party chats and plan to resume weekly involvement next week as part of deepening my commitment to and involvement in the Treeleaf sangha during Ango.

Gassho, and thanks again to all our wonderful priests who have organized this.

[Hogo]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hello everyone,
The idea was raised to put a little posting on this topic each week to let everyone know what we have been up to at our weekly "tea party", so starting this week I (or someone) will be writing a brief summary of our disscussions. This will be helpful to regulars of the tea party who may have missed being there, or to anyone possibly thinking of attending yet not sure what it is all about.

It is a great opportunity to connect live with fellow Sangha members via Skype voice. Every week is different and aside from a simple meal chant at the begining things stay pretty informal.
Every meeting is fluid and changing. I have seen topics range from serious and thought provoking, all the way to just people hanging around and sharing friendly or funny stories. You can talk about any subject of interest to you or just hang back and listen in, its all good .
I personally have learned much just hanging out with the group, and it is always fun.

As for todays meeting, we welcomed a new face (voice actually) to the usual crowd , shared a bit on our Ango experiences, discussed ideas to make the Ango partner selection go smoother, welcomed back Hans who shared news of his trip to Shanghai with us, and spent a good bit of time just generaly visiting and having a good time

Do join us for tea sometime, have a great week everyone.
Gassho ~ Dave.

[Shohei]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Thank you Dave!!!

Gassho
Shohei

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

I personally have learned much just hanging out with the group, and it is always fun.

Indeed...thanks Dave!

Gassho,
Dosho

[Engyo]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Well done Dave!
Or, as Shohei might say, "55Hi".
Gassho,
Don

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

Thank you Dave!!!

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[nadia_estm]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

thanks David and all..it was a great time

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi.

Just putting in areminder of the teaparty.
Same time, same place.
Thank you for your practice.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Shohei]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

be there with bells on.

Gassho
Shohei

[Janne H]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi, I might join this time, have given my skypename to Fugen. Are we using webcam or just voice chat?

Janne

[Tb]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Hi, I might join this time, have given my skypename to Fugen. Are we using webcam or just voice chat?

Janne

Hi.

Voice chat.
Only those that have skype 2 beta 2 can see more than 1 people as the conversation is on...

But we'll see you there.

Mtfbwy
Fugen

[Stephanie]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Summary of today's Tea Party chat:

We talked about various aspects of Ango commitments, and our experiences with them.

One topic that generated good discussion was the times of day that people sit. We talked about how people with different personalities, circadian rhythms, etc., might tend to sit more at certain times of day, and this might vary across the population. Some of the people on the chat were "night sitters," some "morning sitters," and even a couple of "noon sitters." We talked about the ideal most likely being to sit both morning and night.

We talked about difficulties with mindful eating, and it was a near universal agreement that people were experiencing more resistance and difficulty with mindful eating than they expected. Saying a verse or verses before eating can feel either self-centered (committing this food to good outcomes or practice) or grandiose (may all beings be nourished by this slice of pizza I am about to eat). And many of us have developed a habitual tendency to eat quickly and/or while in a distracted state.

There was some discussion of fitness practices and dietary choices, different impacts of vegetarianism on different people, eating multiple times a day when dieting or fasting intermittently, and the possibility of incorporating a commitment to regular exercise into an Ango commitment.

There was some discussion of video games, new games coming out and levels of interest in them, and taking a break from video games.

I shared my pastoral fantasy of getting a house with a yard where I could own and raise goats so I could milk my goats in the morning and make my own organic, local goat cheese.

We talked about other pets including cats, dogs, and iguanas, and the appeals and drawbacks of each. Dirk shared that he briefly entertained the idea of raising chickens.

There was a bit of discussion about what role religion plays in our human makeup, reference to levels of religiosity being very low in Sweden and Denmark, and how early religious thinking may have appeared in our human ancestors.

We came up with some Treeleaf t-shirt ideas including "Silence Thread," "I need to go sit with that," and "I need to go shit, sit, and sleep," which was Janne's parting comment :wink: After he left we had a bit of discussion about what it would entail if one were to try to do all those things at one time. We agreed that a padded toilet seat might make that more feasible.

And probably some other stuff too that I've forgotten.

It was a good showing, I think maybe there were eight people involved or so in the chat.

[nadia_estm]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

so sad i couldn´t join, but it is nice to see what happened ....sounds like it was fun!

[Dosho]

Re: Sharing Helpful and Insightful Tips (was The Tea Party)

Thanks Stephanie!