Basic Goodness

Life-changing journeys for talented human beings offered by a some zen dude with the brain of an advertising guy and the body of a nightclub doorman. Welcome to Atalwin's blog!

  • About
  • Ambien Zolpidem Buy Online Zolpidem Purchase Online Uk Ambien Online Buy Zolpidem From India Ambien Cr To Buy
  • Blog
  • Applause
  • Connect
  • 100 DW website

Full Moon, Fresh Vows

July 22, 2013 By Atalwin Pilon Leave a Comment

Villers le Lac, Saut du Doubs, France.

Let’s write down a couple of things for the sake of writing. It is Monday and the seconds week of sesshin has started. There is a stunning full moon outside and I am a bit sweaty from the Fusatsu ceremony. It is special full moon ceremony. Genno Roshi must have prepared it a bit but we, the students, weren’t told in advance. So it came as a bot of surprise after the first period of zazen (zazen is the Japanese word for sitting zen meditation).

The ceremony is intended as a fresher-upper, a cleansing and the creation of a clean slate. We renew our vows. I think it was about 25 minutes of bowing and chanting different sutras and reciting the names of the most important Buddhas and Boddhissatvahs.

To be honest I am not very big on the Buddhist services, the chanting and the ceremonies. For me it is a bit like going to family gatherings: I am not particularly looking forward but afterwards I feel kind of good. Especially in this case, when there was a lot more bowing than normally, I liked it because I feel a surrendering to the rhythm and the movement. Bowing is nice practice, it makes humble and soft if you do it often enough.

I have decided I will start writing ‘my book’ in August (how strange does it feel to say that). I will start creating the conditions. I think I will need some input from people who have written a book before, I guess I could use an editor and/ or a writing coach and I can start meeting publishers. I could use a structure and a support team (friends who like to proof read, brainstorm and confront me) to keep me going. Oh, and a workplace in Amsterdam could be very helpful. Suggestions are welcome (got an idyllic garden house inside the Amsterdam canal belt?).

Sometimes I take a look at myself from the perspective of an alien observing the earth. I think it is a good exercise to observe the self with a certain curiosity and without too many harsh judgments  but just as a peculiar phenomenon. I have been doing that here and there during the last couple of days.

What I notice is a lot of harmless but not very functional or satisfying behavior. There is nothing wrong with surfing the internet of reading a newspaper but it doesn’t give a great deal of satisfaction, especially when I use it as a distraction strategy to keep myself from doing things that I consider useful, necessary or meaningful. I find it somewhat scary to say it out loud but there seems to be awakening something inside me that is kind of done with that.

You may also like:

  1. Confusion
  2. Stick to the basics
  3. Don’t take yourself so fucking seriously
  4. Being back in The Netherlands (and going with the flow)

Filed Under: Basic Goodness Tagged With: France, Honesty, Insight, Journey, Warrior, Zen

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

SideAd

Would you like some Basic Goodness in your inbox too?

More than 2,367 awesome people from all over the world follow Basic Goodness. Sign up and join our tribe if you are into courageous living too.
* = required field
Language



powered by MailChimp!

Top 5 Most Popular

  • The black wolf and the white wolf (373437 Views)
  • 12 things every guy should master to become a real man (355286 Views)
  • Using social media as a tool for spiritual growth (124070 Views)
  • Open letter to my teacher Genpo Merzel (73882 Views)
  • Blog (66547 Views)

13 Questions to Joost

13 Questions to Douwe

13 Questions to Joan

Tagcloud

100 Day Warrior Amsterdam Anger Australia Bali Beautiful Beirut Blogging Colombia Compassion Courage Death Ego Fear Frustration good Gratitude Healing Heart Honesty Hong Kong India Insight Inspiration Iraq Journey Joy Karma Liberation Life Love Masks Meditation Personal Relationships Sadness Sam van Eeghen Thailand Transformation USA Vulnerability Warrior Wholeheartedness Wisdom Zen

You may also like

  1. Confusion
  2. Stick to the basics
  3. Don’t take yourself so fucking seriously
  4. Being back in The Netherlands (and going with the flow)

Are you ready to become a Warrior?

Click the button below and dive into the World of the Warrior. You will find everything you need to know about the course and you can register immediately. Your transformation is important, it's how you will inspire the people around you to follow.

Learn more about the 100 Day Warrior

  • About
  • Blog
  • Applause
  • Connect
  • 100 DW website

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in