Currently Reading:
The Three Pillars of Zen
by Roshi Philip Kapleau



A Moment to Breathe:
The last few weeks have been REALLY busy. Summer school started back up, and that was going balls to the wall, because the mid-term test came quickly. I am happy to say that I got a respectable B, which is just fine by me. Speech is not a class that I'm obsessed with acing, and I'm not an honors student obsessed with getting straight A's. For my purposes, a B is perfectly fine.

Only a few days before that mid-term was my first Aikido test. I was 8th kyu, now I am 7th kyu, and already studying for 6th kyu. What does this mean? I have a new color belt! I am not longer a pathetic white belt, I am now a high and mighty yellow belt!


Work Situation:
I have a new office mate, and I'm not particularly pleased about it. This person was with our company, but left and came back. She's nice, but she's annoying. She's stopped coming in late and taking extra long lunches, so I'm not as annoyed by that anymore. Now it's just the other stuff, like the random out breaks of bad whistling. The random out breaks of desk drumming. The leaving her desk for 30 minutes at a time to chat with the supervisor. Nothing work related, just gabbiness. I spoke with the supervisor about this the other day, and we'll just have to see.


Practice:
I've not been focusing so much on attributes lately. I've been focusing on being "awake". All of my effort has been put into being aware. Aware of my surroundings. Aware of my situation. Aware of what I am doing. So far the result is that I am discovering that I am much less clumsy then I had previously thought. I am discovering the next "magical Zen power": When one actually pays attention to what one does, there is no such things as clumsiness or "stupid mistakes".


Summation:
Whew! That was a lot to get out, but there it is. I'll make an effort to keep up with this blog better in the future. On re-reading it, I don't puke so much onto one entry. It's just too much, and unfocused. The next one will be much better.


Cheers,
CET

"Much of the suffering in the world comes from the illusion that we are separate from one another." - Gautama Buddha