Good morning, Day 1

"Good morning, Day 1. I wonder what you are going to learn today"

Days went by in Dhamma Torana and I was able to track the time in a new way. Luckily for me, I have developed the habit of NOT wearing my watch on weekends during the work year and never during the vacation. I guess growing up in Goa as a child helped me to stay connected with nature. Long before I had even heard of the wonderful Mr Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligences Theory, I was most at peace watching the sky, listening for a rustle in the bushes and just being me.

So this was not going to be hard, I thought as I settled into the sqaue sheet of sponge. And I was wrong, very wrong.

What was interesting was the intensity of my connections with the outside world. I was not trying to suppress my thoughts. I had read enough about mindfulness and staying in the moment. But as Goenka ji says, I was still in the 'intellectual' stage of wisdom. The experiential was miles away.

Here is what happened:
"I wonder what the kids are doing"
"I wonder if the school SharePoint has been updated yet"
"I wonder if I will be able to cope with the demands of the new year with
my Masters programme and my school work"

And on and on and on it went.

The first day in session, I learned just one simple thing. And staying with that one set of directions was HARD, DIFFICULT, EXCRUCIATING.

Just that?
What do you mean focus on just that?
This is it? Come on now !
I need a wall to support my back, I am wobbly.
My tailbone hurts.

There it was, I understood my own frailities. I wanted everything NOW, yet I was not ready to stay in the NOW. For this day, I was taught just this one simple thing.

That is all the Buddha wanted me to do.
And I was trying...