DLMC - Mon 22 May 2007

Meditation: I seem to start to get used to the pace of life here. Despite pretty heavy workload sometimes, my meditation starts to progress smoothly. Yesterday I had an all-day-good-sittings -- a rare occurance during my stay here. And the work makes me work under the hot sun and in the midst of mosquitoes sometimes. The sun and sweat make me feel very healthy. And I am -- my flu recovered in 3-4 days without medicine and much expressed-symthoms. The mosquitoes get me used to their bites, to the point where I no longer feel that their bites are disagreeable or unpleasant. The heart has sort of neutralized the sensation. Hence mosquito net is no longer necessary.

Today I had the chance to deal with coldness. I didn't feel comfortable with the sensation at first, hence my hands kept fidgetting, changing positions but never really satisfied with any. Until suddenly a realization struck me -- I have been trying to run away from the cold sensation, not wanting to be with the present. Then there was a change/ shift in the mental attitude to accepting the cold, allowing my body to feel it. That is all I need to do. Henceforth the fidgetting stopped. The restlessness also stopped. Now the next challenge: deal with painful sensations. All the best!

I stop demanding -- demand, albeit only in the mind, that people do work or behave in certain ways. Now I allow them to be, give them the space to be themselves, to adapt to the environment, and to change when they are ready to.