Evening, 8/7/07

I have come home from work at 9:00. I do an hour of housework and eat a light meal before I begin meditation. I sit, and for some time my attention goes to sensations in my body: ringing in my ears, rumbling stomach, the sulfur smell of the match I lit the candle with. I am sitting with one hand nesting in the other in my lap and my legs crossed at the ankles. The feeling of this posture is that all my energy is self-contained and recycles itself through my body, instead of flying off to other places. It feels calming and centering. It seems that tonight I easily find that balance between relaxation and alertness, breath coming in its own natural rhythm. I counted maybe three or four times during the half hour that my attention wandered. Once a sort of Russian scenario in which I was talking to someone about my Jewish ancestors (I have none, where does this stuff come from?) There were a couple of small slumpings and an instance in which mind just wandered off somewhere. It seems like it was good that I worked around the house for an hour. It was a good transition between the fast-paced environment of work and the slower more inner-directed work of meditation. So, I earned my cushion time by doing an hour of housework. A good session, and I feel fairly rested and calm.