December Practice Intensive

Comment

Comment by Lisa Kuntz on December 19, 2009 at 5:24pm

Thank you to everyone who participated in being a communal organism for three days.

As part of the breakfast kitchen clean-up team, I noticed how awkward how hesitant I was on the first day. Should I follow the directions literally, and stop where they stopped, or should I nudge the cycle in the direction of moving the dried utensils & bowls seamlessly to their places on the kitchen table? I noticed how I held back, for fear of interfering, and then how I ended up interfering or interrupting unintentionally, once when I reached in front of Flint’s tray while trying to make a space on the counter, another time when I obstructed the flow of drying glasses. I noticed my longing to facilitate the process of washing & drying, so that it would flow like kinhin when we’re on a roll. I held myself back; perhaps it was better for us to learn, as a group, in silence, by trial and error, for each of us to notice through growing awareness that the process of washing & drying dishes could be a mindful flow or mindless functionality. By the last day, our kitchen clean-up community was working in harmony, in growing attunement to one another & the rest of the community.

I noticed my uncertainty about my role at times: there was a tray with unwashed dishes on the stove. Had a worker left it there, intending to come back, or had someone forgotten it? If I washed the dishes myself, would I be helping someone who needed to spend time elsewhere, or would I cause someone to feel criticized for not doing it themselves?

I found an outlet for my longing to celebrate the alignment of bodies and energy in our container: I aligned the white bowls so that the tiny ledges along the lip held each bowl parallel to the one below. Lining up these ordinary white bowls so that they were aligned vertically & horizontally in the space they occupied was as satisfying to my soul as if I had completed a beautiful flower arrangement!

Comment by Todd Bankler on December 8, 2009 at 1:32pm

Flint's recollection of his "Evening Reflection on Silent Illumination" is only missing one thing I remember he said. If you add this one thing back, I think it makes the perfect statement about who Appamada is and what the Sangha is doing... a sort of mission statement.

"... And this potent aspiration and clear expression in practice goes by another name," the last word the Buddha uttered before dying - "Appamada."