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LAUNCHPADS "Piss Factory"
Name: Andy A.
Location: Boulder, CO Practice: various Comments: "Last December, at the close of a busy semester at muthafuckin' crazy Naropa, I needed nothing less than three days of absolute solitude to screw my head back on, as any ability to gaze with a spiritual eye had been seemingly obliterated. I shared an old haunted farmhouse on 10 acres with some writing students (who emulated The Beats and their lifestyle... so nightly smoke, drinks, and muse chasing was the norm). Quite a contrast from the tidy yoga teacher I had lived with earlier that year. Anyway, I had a huge bedroom for my sanctuary with a walk in closet (pictured). With a microwave, 5 gallons of water, some tea, and a window to the snowy porch for a fridge... I was set for seclusion. Friday night I slept in the closet to break it in. It was dark and lonely. I woke up at 5 am for two hours of dark zazen. The alarm was set, the full and empty water jugs there for all my bodily needs. (By the way, I recommend not putting the whiz bottle and the half-empty water bottle next to each other if you're gonna do a dark-closet retreat...don't ask...). The sun rose through a crack in the door. I fall out of the closet into the sunlight, gulping down air like a child that almost drowned. Somehow I step into walking meditation before breakfast (pictured) in the walk-in closet, pseudo-oryoki style (a zen form of contemplative eating). Tea break with yellow streams of sunlight, then morning chants to invoke the Kagyu gurus. Short study period for my text of contemplation, "The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas," then a little yoga to keep me embodied. Mindfulness/ awareness (shamatha/ vipashyana) meditation in and out of the closet, for contrast of space. Meal chants and lunch. More meditation. Since part of this retreat was to allow the space to discover my own practices from a foundation of solid mindfulness, I allowed a "nothing period" in the afternoon schedule for stuff like energy practices... like imagining dense energy to lift... feeling sore the next day in the respective muscles. Tea during sunset over the mountains. Protector chants from the Tibetan tradition, meal chants, and a simple dinner (nothing heavy, as in the monastic tradition...). Candlelight meditation, sitting and walking. Then to the closet for another 2 hours of "dark zazen" before bed- in the closet. Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night, feeling as alone as you actually are? Framing the sleep schedule with the dark meditations was to explore that, along with my general issues of being alone in the dark. Weird shit starts to happen. After three days of this (feeling blissful and tortured in a closet of confusing piss and water bottles), the world was so beautiful I could hardly stand it. In all, it was a perfect shut-down/ re-charge/ inducement of the Eye that never sleeps after a brain-melting semester. What did I do for squatting? I cheated and ran across the hall." Submit a photo of your own meditation space along with a brief bio and description of your space and the practices you use it for to launchpads@the-manifest.org. |
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©2003 The Manifest E-Zine