donutszenmom.com

Moon Day, so I just sat. The Cop got up and walked into the kitchen, asked about practice. He looked disappointed about the Moon Day for a moment, then turned around and went back to bed. The dog was happy ’cause she gets to snooze on the bed with him when I’m not there.

I need to go back and listen to how Richard Freeman characterizes the connection between the upper palate and the pelvic floor in meditation. A great lecture. Available as an audio file on the newly redesigned (and really good looking!) Yoga Workshop site.

Anyhow, as I’m sitting, I curl my tongue up and rest the very tip against the upper palate. Suddenly there is consciousness in the pelvic floor. Oooh, exactly what I heard about from RF on Sunday when I listened to the lecture. I wasn’t looking for the connection this morning — feeling preceded thought, in this case. Nice. Usually I am a “think first, then try to feel” type. So this was a little first-thing-in-the-morning gift.

And of course, as is always, delightfully, the zazen “rule”: no thinking! So just the feeling, and trim the post-feeling thinking.

I did my best, but I was kinda psyched.

Half lotus feels perfectly comfortable for 25 minutes. Padmasana is fine, though I don’t usually bother. I’ve ditched the zafu and just stick with the zabuton. Asana practice over the past couple years has certainly made my sitting more comfortable — I am more in my seat than ever — but let me tell you, there is no padmasana like the padmasana at the end of Ashtanga practice. To sit directly into padmasana is kind of like jumping from sun salutations to urdhva dhanurasana — it can be done, but it feels a HECK of a lot better if you have a full practice in before you do the backbends.

So: Are asana practice and zazen the same or different?

Has anyone figured out how to answer a koan online?