Learning Blog 6:

Monday: Spent 30 minutes or so in bed focusing on my breathing. It seemed to work better today. I counted the breaths in and out and was able to hold longer breaths and not focus so much on controlling them.

I went back to sleep and had very vivid dreams!

I got this excellent suggestion from Dr. Fields in her response to last week’s blog about breathing, she said,

“We do it for 3-4 minutes at the beginning of each yoga class. Just "deep belly breathing". You might try saying (inwardly) "Peace" on the inhale and "Thank you" on the exhale. Gives your mind two simple ideas to 'hang on' while you breathe.”

I like this idea. I think I will try that this coming week.

Last night I read chapter 1 of The Joy of Meditation (Stone) about Indian vs. Chinese meditation and how the former is inwardly- focused (one-pointedness of mind) and the latter promotes meditation that coexists with awareness of external situations and circumstances. The author promotes the latter form of meditation, which seems to be more appealing and useful to me.

Tuesday & Wednesday: I’ve continued to read The Joy of Meditation. I’ve learned about the Great Circle mediation which involves visualization of certain things such as sitting on a soft white cloud, imagining a great waterfall of flowing golden light, allowing that light to pour over your head, and then visualizing the light passing around, through, and over your body in a particular sequence or orbit, pausing in certain crucial spots such as the T’an T’ien, which is two inches below the navel.

The author describes the Great Circle meditation as “fairly simple” and says it contains “elements of the Taoist Macrocosmic and Microcosmic breaths, as well as the Chinese and Tibetan Backward Flowing Method.”

Wait, what? All that is fairly simple? I’m starting to feel overwhelmed.

In further reading, the author describes the principal forms of Japa, one of the oldest spiritual practices in India. He then goes on to describe basics of Zen meditation, beginning with the correct sitting poses. I was lost.

For a simple book of just over 100 pages that purports to be an introduction, this book is really quite advanced in some of its concepts and practices. Trying to visualize things like sitting poses and how to make golden light- energy flow around my body in a particular orbit and pause at certain locations was difficult. It made me think of some of the readings we’ve done this week about cognitive apprenticeships and legitimate peripheral participation. There are things talked about in this “basic” book that I think could best be learned in an apprenticeship, or at least a zone of proximal development, guided by teachers and near- peers. I thought about how the “work” or “expertise” of meditation might compare to that of midwives, tailors, or meatcutters.

Trying to figure it out on my own by just reading a book is overwhelming.

Here’s an interesting blog post about apprenticeship and Zen training:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildfoxzen/2012/10/its-not-so-easy-the-apprenticeship-model-for-zen-training.html

Thursday I returned to the Lakhania’s Envisioning Method guided meditation that I enjoyed a few weeks ago. It was like meeting an old friend, but one who still has new things to say. I think that kind of meditation is where I may find the most benefit.