The match scratched sharply, scattering particles of sulfur before bursting into flame. She held the brilliant flame to a stick of incense and waited until it too caught fire, then blew out the match. Within her own self, she felt the sudden heart-burst of inner heat that magically enveloped her awareness in the deep bliss to which she was becoming more and more accustomed. This was a good sign, boding well for her morning’s practice.

As the pungent incense fragrance of sandalwood and roses wafted upward, she bowed at the waist and took refuge in the three precious gems and in her teacher, inner and outer, and she vowed to never abandon sentient beings. She vowed to practice the six perfections. Then, she stepped back from the small table and sat down on a plain wooden stool.

Hi,

This week, I wrote a sketch (see below) inspired by my meditation experiences in Danny B's little round house by the creek. The sketch is fiction, as are all characters in it. (and it is copyrighted, fyi). Needless to say, I had some really good meditations in that little house. Thank you Danny B.!!!!

The Round House

At the western edge of North America, the round house perches, quiet, above Murmuring Hot Springs creek. The creek flows rapidly to the nearby Pacific, bubbling, gurgling, sometimes spitting. Always moving, always singing.

I put the top down ~ zip through town ~ and check out the shore ~ there’s a warm wind swooping down from the mountains ~ and blowing out to sea ~ it’s eighty degrees (Fahrenheit) and conditions are glassy ~ I love offshore flows ~ I walk across the sand ~ and plunge into the water ~ it’s painfully cold ~ but such an awakening ~ I swim until it gets warm ~ then float on my back ~ looking at the sky ~ through a bubble that my eyes create ~ it’s oval shaped ~ I see the sky clearly ~ but the cliffs and trees ~ stretching around the periphery ~ are hazy and indistinct ~ kind of spooky ~ and there’s almost no sound ~ just the water lapping against my ears ~ occasionally a bird streaks by ~ leaving trails in the sky ~ I try to stay with these images ~ but forces outside my bubble keep interfering ~ mostly thoughts about things that aren’t in the vicinity ~ there’s a porous boundary between what’s in front of me ~ and the images that my mind flashes ~ of thing

I pop a couple of chewable vitamin-C in my mouth ~ walk down to the lodge for breakfast ~ have a dish of yogurt, figs and granola ~ then go outside to sit and watch the mist rise. I meet Meinolf, a Child Psychologist from Germany and I  tell him a little about my studies in childhood reading ~ he tells me how often children mis-interpret what adults tell them ~ to a child, the phrase ‘how many times do I have to tell you to be quiet’ often comes across as: ‘you’re too small, noisy and bothersome to have anything useful to say’ ~ which can take a toll on their self-worth. His job is not to correct the adults, he says, but to help children interpret it better.

Chanting with Gurumayi. 5 minutes with fade out at the end. i believe albert will post these in the meditation house eventually. i've done 5 and 10 minute chant sessions so far (10 minutes to follow). anyone want a longer one? 20 minutes? i can go up to 48 minutes.

as soon as albert downloads i will take the download option off. just my preference. thanks all! 

A Meditation Tool:  A simple, yet profound thing i learned from Papaji (HWL Poonja) is that it is impossible to THINK while holding the breath.  To explain further, it IS possible to deliberately think one word at a time while holding the breath, but when the mind is on a thinking, thinking, thinking rant, holding breath will cease the thinking.