Meditation

So, last night Andy & I went to the practice session Buddhist Meditation Center. It was not structured for the person who has never meditated before and has no experience with it. I didn't think we would have a sitting right off the bat and then have instruction after. As soon as the sitting time started it dawned on me that Andy has probably never meditated before and has no idea what is is doing.

I think that was a very long 30 minutes for him. He said he was ready to go insane during it because he has this constant ringing in his ears from damage to them from years of playing the drums. He said the only thing that saved him was the music coming from a bar down the street. I am even more convinced that Andy could benefit from meditating, but he just isn't in that place right now. Maybe some other day.

He was so frustrated with the whole experience that he was contemplating homicide if anyone annoyed him more. So, guess meditation won't work for Andy at this time.

The practice sessions are 30 min. of sitting time and then an hour of discussion & lecture. There are 5 practice sessions and 1 half-day retreat. I will continue to go to them. The book we are reading for our assignments is by Awakening Loving-Kindness by Pema Chodron.

We plan to go to House of Mercy on Sunday. Since we moved out of the Cities we have not been back there, but we have not found a place we like, like we liked HOM. So, we're gonna go back and see what we think. We may not like it or we may. They may have changed, or we may have changed. So, we'll see.

Another thing - I think family may think I am the whole "reason" behind our feelings on baptism and organized religion. I am just the messenger or the voice. Andy laughs that he ruined me.