Every day is different — so, it makes for interesting weeks!  Here’s a little snapshot of what happened on my mat & cushion this week.

I focused on four main things:

1. Getting back into a regular routine after being away in Nepal for a month.

2. Building back to the extent possible while being cautious of a nagging ankle injury.

3. Developing my capacity of equanimity with regard to ALL beings – even those I don’t like/appreciate.

4. Establishing my amped up Ngöndro practice.

One, getting back on the routine…. This one is a likely recurring theme for all of us as, for various reasons, our routine can get thrown off. Long travel abroad is an annual culprit for me. With twice yearly trips to Nepal/India it can be quite a challenge to stay on track. Especially for those trips wherein I’m leading a group pilgrimage. I realized a couple years back that when I’m serving in this role of Pilgrimage Leader that even though we’re going to places and encountering teachers that are near and dear to me, I have to put the folks I’m taking with me first! My own needs, including practice, have to take a back seat. So, I get asana in when I can, and my emphasis shifts to meditation because that’s easier to work in and around the pilgrimage responsibilities. Now that I’m back and we got in another successful Kino weekend, followed by Monday’s moon day, I managed to get on the mat every morning this week at 5:30am and crank out a decent practice.

From “The Eight Stanzas of Mind Training” by Langri Tangpa:

“When accompanying anyone anywhere,

I must regard myself as the inferior to all

And, from the core of my heart,

Respectfully hold others as paramount.”

Two, the ankle injury….  A few months ago, while out walking the dogs on a trail in the woods near our house, I twisted my ankle. Having been an avid runner for many years (from about age 10 to 44) I’ve had my fair share of ankle rolls, but this one was different. First of all it hurt like the dickens! And second, even though it didn’t turn black and blue and the swelling was minor, the instability was significant. Over the course of the following few weeks, just when I thought it was better, I’d roll it again. It felt like the ankle was falling off the base of my foot. Turns out that’s kinda what was happening. I saw a doc and he said that the tendons on either side of my ankle were overstretched and not doing their job, which, at least in part, is to hold the ankle in place. On top of that a ligament that runs down the side of my ankle was ruptured. Needless to say I was pretty worried about how I’d function in Nepal, especially on a six day trek! Ultimately, I managed to get through without much additional trauma to the ankle. And it does seem to be getting better, although the mobility is limited and I can’t put it into padmasana. So, here we are, working through an ankle-considerate primary series and carrying on.

Three, equanimity practice…. An important element of my daily routine is the Joy of Living meditation program through Tergar – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s organization. I’m currently on the last section of Joy of Living Level 2 that focuses on the equanimity aspect of the four immeasurables of loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. This section emphasizes the importance of applying this equanimous mind to ALL beings – even the ones we dislike and think are horrible. A means to doing so is to focus on the recognition that we ALL (a) want to be happy (love); and (b) want to be free from suffering (compassion). It’s not an easy task, but the practice is super helpful. Each morning I’m guided to bring to mind those that I’m at odds with, those that I don’t like, that upset me, that I think are doing wrong in the world and try and see that they too are doing what they think will make them happy and avoid suffering. 

*Here’s a link to a great Tricycle article on this topic: https://tricycle.org/magazine/charting-the-four-immeasureables/

Four, about Ngondro…. More on this to come, but Ngöndro is the foundation of my daily Tibetan/Vajrayana Buddhist practice. Also known as the inner preliminaries, this is the meditation practice that I do every morning upon waking up. It involves several stages and quite a bit of chanting that takes one through the process of taking refuge and cultivating bodhicitta, purifying obscurations, making offerings, guru yoga and finally dedication. While I was in Nepal a couple weeks ago my teacher, Khenpo Tokpa Tulku, gave me a more lengthy version of the practice and spent a couple hours coaching me through it. It’s pretty magical.