Maitri workshop: Practice Day

Today was the Maitri Practice Day: we all had selected one or two pairs of glasses we wanted to work with (mine was GREEN) and now we had come back to tell each other about our experiences and findings. We started off with a meditation of about half an hour. Then laid down in the posture that goes with the glasses for about 25 minutes and went outside for the aimless stroll for another 25 minutes or so.

This time I was a lot more quiet than earlier this week when I was practicing at home. My mind still darted off a lot of times, but hey, what's new? And I found that flexing my feet for about 25 minutes is not relaxing at all but quite strenuous actually.

When I walked outside I had the same experience as earlier this week: I felt one with myself and my surroundings and my pace was slow. 

Today I didn't see a particular colour more than another (although you might not think that by the pictures I am showing) and I was not particularly attracted to reflections as I was during the previous times.

The buddha that is connected with GREEN is Amoghasiddhi, his name means He whose Accomplishment is not in vain. He belongs to the family of Karma whose family symbol is the Double vajra/thunderbolt. Read more on this buddha on Wikipedia.

ancient statue of Amoghasiddhi, Tropenmuseum Amsterdam

GREEN is the colour of action or wu-wei: doing by doing nothing. Every way of going outwards is a form of action/dynamics. That can take all kinds of ways, for example to take your attention outwards, to perceive. GREEN is about dynamics that don't reveal themselves as such, about action that is not really visible.

I had chosen GREEN in the first place because I thought my life might need some action, especially in the work area. That didn't happen, but I acted on my relationship with H. which I broke off last week. Maybe the workshop last month  had something to do with it, maybe it was in my cards anyways, I don't know, but I felt strong enough to choose for myself. At the moment that makes me feel quiet and more at peace.

After the walk we came back, had lunch and discussed our findings. Someone suggested we'd do this regularly and we even picked a date for our next day at the end of July. This time I am going to experiment with WHITE.

This day was in more ways a very fruitful day as someone else is willing to start a Dharma Art group: the idea is to gather once a month and discuss the book Dharma Art by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, mix it with excercises and to present our art to each other. Count me in!