Discipline

In case anybody wonders -- and I seriously doubt that anybody does -- I'm still keeping the vassa pledges I made a week or so ago. Wearing white is easy. Meditating twice a day has been easy too, surprisingly, and even not playing computer games is not overly difficult, though there are times when I long to reach for those icons, to pass the time.

The cat was confused about me sitting on 'her' meditation cushion for a few days, walking all around me, meowing, insisting upon climbing my body so I'd hold her, and generally being a sweet pest. But she eventually gave it up and got used to it. So I'm left in peace, from the feline at least.

I'm also a little surprised at how much good the meditation seems to be doing for me. Since it's only 20 minutes at a time, I expected little other than the discipline of doing it. Then I started up a healing meditation I learned a few years ago from my favorite teacher, even listening to her guided meditation one evening. She is Asian, of Chinese ancestry though Malaysian-born. This meditation leads the mind in sending loving thoughts to the body, superficially at first, then deeper to include the various organs -- brain, heart, lungs, liver, intestines, etc -- as well as every body part. She says that sending these loving thoughts sends the good 'chi', or energy, to that part and heals whatever needs healing. Something is working -- certainly in my neck/spine area where I had a bad whiplash back in 1993 leaving my spine looking something like a pretzel in that area. This had been inflamed lately, but since I've been doing this meditation daily, the inflammation seems to be gone. No more pain, at any rate. There was a second area that I cannot even remember at this moment, also gone. She also addresses the mind, as well as the body, and when I'm through with 20 or 30 minutes of this I'm kind of a happy, limp noodle.

I think what I like about these pledges most, however, is simply the successful discipline that comes with following them. They cause not one bit of difficulty or trouble in my life, other than offering a tad more discipline in a couple of areas.

I still don't know if I'll make it until the full moon in early October, but for now it's all good.