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found a new web site about meditation, which attempts to be a portal of sorts to books and pithy summaries of the different traditions of meditation.
it’s also interesting that the site might be self-funding through the book referrals. each book link has an amazon affiliate referral in it. with enough revenue from those they could bid on a google ad word for meditation and create a simple business model around informational web sites that self-publicize. brilliant.
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i’ve been back for only ten days, but i’m already stressed about leaving again. right at the new year i’m heading back into retreat for another month.
this next month is part two of a three part program in tibetan buddhism. this next one will have half as much sitting meditation as first month; the rest of our time is dedicated to studying the shravakayana, pratyekabuddhayana, and bodhisattvayana paths. these are the foundation and core components of the tradition - exploring suffering, discipline, openness, wisdom, and compassion.
i was curious how much of my one month meditation retreat would stay with me. back to full speed at work, any calm and gentleness i had from the retreat evaporated. but i’ve noticed a couple changes. first, i’m only getting hooked or trapped by 98% of my emotions like anger and craving. that’s a marked improvement from the 99% hook-age just before the retreat. some afflicted emotions are easier to see as impermanent or baseless now. second, when i sit even for a half hour it is much easier to settle and wake up and soften. i can be feeling blue or irritated or restless, and even a short period of meditation adds a lot of space to the situation. so i can’t say that a month of meditation caused a huge shift in my life, but the subtle differences seem pretty helpful.
sitting monkey is place where