Posted by tabitha on July 6, 2002, at 2:27:18
In reply to Re: Any other people into Zen out there? Tabitha, posted by Roo on July 5, 2002, at 10:05:51
Hi Roo,
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I don't know how you manage to sit thru the storms. I decided to take another stab at a daily practice, so far I can manage about 10 minutes before I give into all those compelling reasons to get up and do something else.
Joko Beck is the teacher at the San Diego Zen Center. I particularly like her book Everyday Zen. Her books are not exactly warm though, so they're not always comforting.
Your post reminded me of when I first went to the zen center, years ago, pre-meds, pre-diagnosis, pre-therapy. I went to the beginners session, where the instructor was explaining how to do thought labeling. You're supposed to watch your thoughts and gently label them as they come up. He demonstrated by doing this out loud, and every few seconds he'd say "having a _____ thought", having a ______ thought", etc, with silences in between. At that time my mind was racing so much, I could not label one thought without ten more thoughts popping up during the time it took to label the first one. That gave me an inkling that what was going on in my head might be a bit unusual!
poster:tabitha
thread:348
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20020527/msgs/391.html