30 May, 2006

I took the day off work today, so I had my meditation at 1:50 p.m. I started by getting into my new seating position(with three pillows not two!), and relaxed my body. I started to chant 'om' again, as it had a calming effect on me the night before. It worked again, the vibrations man!! I am in good form, although monkey-mind is prevelent. My concentration on my breath is patchy at best, and I am lost in thought for much of the 25 minutes meditating. At the end, I said my prayer and dedication, and had gratitude again for it.
I picked up a book on the shelf that I had wanted to read for quite a while. The Title is "Buddhism, An Introduction and Guide" by Donald Lopez Jr. I read through the life of Buddha, which I had read before from other other sources. It was different, in a way. It seemed to me that it mixed mythology with history, for example, when the Siddhartha Gautama was born, he came from under his mother's arm, lotus flowers blossomed beneath his feet, and he could walk and talk already. It's a nice story, but it suggests that Buddha was super-human somehow, which I think detracts from the ideal that Buddha was an ordinary man, like us, and attained Buddhahood, attainable by any other ordinary man. I take everything with a pinch of salt anyway, so it doesn't matter to me if the story is embellished. It makes a better read I suppose!
I read through the Non-Virtuous Deeds, there was one which concerned me a little, namely Senseless Speech. Ok, the statement in itself makes sense, you should think about what you say before saying it. But, as I read on, it included the following list of no-nos: Gossip, Bragging, Locquaciousness, Lamenting, Singing (there was more, but I forget). Why would singing be a non-virtuous deed?