Shenpa, Stuttering, and Me

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Re: meditation

From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 16 Oct 2005
Time: 18:55:07 -0500
Remote Name: 205.188.116.203

Comments

Dear Stefan, Quite some time ago, I suddenly wondered to myself why it is that those who meditate refer to what they do as their "practice," i.e., sitting practice, walking practice, chanting practice zen practice, vipassana practice, and so on. A satisfying answer appeared to me just as suddenly as the question had arisen: Because those who meditate are practicing. They are learning and strengthening ways of becoming aware and skills for interacting with their environment. They do this to live as well as possible in the moment during everyday life. // What is learned in "practice" is meant to be applied to daily life, moment-by-moment. If it is not, then I'm not sure that the practice is, in fact, a practice. Consider, as a not so great analogy but the best I can think of now, someone overweight hoping to lose weight. This person may sense that knowledge of nutrition could be very helpful toward that end. So, she studies books, magazines, and scientific articles that state what is good food, how to select and prepare it, how to count calories and set an appropriate caloric intake on a daily basis, and so on. If she learns these useful things but does not apply them to her daily life, she will not benefit from the knowledge she has acquired insofar as her goal of loosing weight is concerned. So it us with each of us: We need to apply the useful things we learn from reading, listening, observing into our lives if we want to change them for the better. // Working with shenpa allows me greater accessibility to living well in the moment. As I do that, I notice the quality of my life increase. Others can and do find other means to live peaceful, content, purposeful lives. There is no one way, but many. Thank you for sharing, Stefan. Ellen-Marie Silverman


Last changed: 10/24/05