November 30th-December 1st Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai

[Beakon]

Thank you for sitting with me, O sangha. I was sitting with you dharma brothers and sisters 1-way tonight. There was a car alarm that was set off in the neighborhood while meditating. I was calm that it didn't even bother me There is a Winnipeg restaurant called 'Affinity: Vegetarian' that specializes in selling a vegetarian buffet, the owners and staff are Taoist. I like complimenting their food by saying "this food has good CHI!". They get flattered. One woman who I get along with likes to use a term called "spiritual nutrition". You get spiritual nutrition from doing spiritual activities, in her case going to her Taoist meetups. In our case, we get spiritual nutrition from doing our weekly Zazenkai. I feel MUCH better!

I wasn't ready for 2-way as usual, because dinner time ends around that time. I found that it was very hot in my suite, so I opened some windows to cool off the living room. There have been hotter times when I meditated, which begs the question: Have you ever tried a sweat lodge ceremony?

Sat Today-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay!

[Mp]

Thank you everyone.

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Meian]

My kids and my hyper dog always seem to come alive around 9pm. I'm hoping the noise in my home did not transfer to Zazenkai. :-)

Thank you for a lovely evening of sangha and community practice. I hope to participate in Rohatsu next week.

Bea kon, I have not been in sweat lodges but I do know Medicine Elders who lead them.

Gassho
Kim
St lh

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Shokai]

Thank you all for your contributions to this zazenkai; that includes the dingle-dangle.
Have a great week.

gassho, Shokai

stlah

[Wabo]

Thank you, everyone. It's a pleasure to practice with you

Gassho, Yan

Sat

[Jundo]

Thank you, Yan. ... from Ukraine, not Russia.

Gassho Jundo

StLah

[Tairin]

The doogle dangle dongle appears to have been a success!

Thank you to the people and technology that helps bring this Sangha together.



Tairin
Sat today and lah

[sjlabat]

Good to see the tech is working
gassho
sean
sat,lah

[Teiro]

Thank you all for sitting with me.

Gassho
Christian

Sat Lah

[Washin]

Thank you Jundo, thank you everyone!

Gassho
Washin
sat

[Seishin]

Sat On Demand, thank you all.

[Kotei]

Thank you everyone.
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Shinshi]

Thank you everyone!

This exercise meshes with my Ango objective of working with my Anger. Here are my thoughts.

I was watch the tides of my emotions ebb and flow if kind of feels like I have a reservoir or capacity for dealing with stressful events. Once that reservoir gets filled my emotions tend to strike hot and fast. Sometimes the thing that is the last drop, the last straw, the thing that triggers my emotion isn't even that big a deal - it is just that I have no more capacity and emotions flood out of me.

When working with horses there is this notion of emotional fitness. Different horses have different natural levels of emotional fitness. Some can deal with a lot without spooking, some will spook at the drop of a heat (literally!) but the point is that you can train a horse to gain emotional fitness. And for me, one of things that happens for me when I practice is that it helps me to train up my emotional fitness. It seems like my reservoir gets bigger, it takes more to make me overflow. Things like sitting, or nurturing seeds really help to build emotional fitness and provide more space to deal with stressors as they come up.

A couple more observations. One is that I am crazy good at pouring water into to my reservoir that doesn't need to be there. When something happens to me that can trigger other thoughts that add to total pool. And sometimes, particularly with anger, it will often make the problem much worse. Sorry to change metaphors but it is like feed a fire. This exercise has been really helpful in letting get some space to see when that is happening and too intervene is the process.

The last thing I have noted is that things that happen to me sometimes seem to have a emotional resonance to past negative experiences. It is like current emotion produces an harmonic vibe that sets off, or triggers, old issues or problems that maybe were never resolved. Old hurts or emotional wounds that vibrate in sympathy with the current experience. When that happens the old emotions seem to leech into my reservoir as well, once again diminishing my capacity and straining my emotional fitness.

So that are my thoughts today.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH