#1 Drip, Drip, Drip, the Bucket Fills
July 24, 2023
Buddhist wisdom for ordinary people on ordinary days.
A slow and steady way to an awakened life.
Hello, friends, meditators, yoginis and yogis,
My newsletter has been coming to you free for some years now and that is not changing. What is different is that I am now offering a few more goodies and a new name!
“Drip, Drip, Drip, the Bucket Fills” is one of the most enduring teachings that I received from my root guru, Gelek Rimpoche.
This newsletter - which is now a Substack - focusses on how we can touch into mindfulness meditation regularly. How the ordinary activities of our day offer a myriad of ways to pay attention, wake up, touch in, experience our senses and frequently gain insight about our own behaviors, habits, and potential. And, to connect to our basic wholesomeness. A little bit at a time.
I’ve written about how this happened for me when I was hemming curtains and packing for moving house and when I sit down for dinner and when my neighbor’s kid started playing the drums…and kept playing the drums for several years.
Drip, Drip, Drip is a bi-monthly letter where I write about:
* How to touch into mindfulness meditation regularly.
* How to discover ways to wake up in your everyday life.
* How to reconnect to your own thread of awareness
* How to use what you’ve got - kids, dogs, neighbors, jobs.
* How to use what you already do - cook, walk, eat, sleep, laundry, work, play.
* AND you get a monthly Mindfulness Meditation Prompt for integrating practice into every day life.
THE TEACHING OF ONE BOAT
There are many meditations that promise to help you relax, energize, feel brave, gain financial confidence, root into your sexuality. Nothing wrong with any of these. These kind of aspirations or creative visualizations might help you feel better or give you some temporary mojo for overcoming an obstacle. But since the target is limited, the effects are predictably temporary.
What can be even more useful is to apply one kind of meditation to your whole life. Doing the same technique in a million different situations. I used to hear yoga teachers talk about the value of dedicating yourself to practice by saying, “If you dig a lot of shallow holes you will end up with a lot of mud. Digging one deep hole is the way to strike oil.”
In Buddhism this advice is a teaching called One Boat. Our practice is ultimately about crossing the river; going from the shore of confusion, dis-ease, craving and dissatisfaction to the other shore of wisdom, compassion and clarity. It’s about getting unstuck, feeling free from loneliness and longing and anxiety. But if If we keep getting out of the boat and into another boat, we will never make it across.
If you go to the doctor and she never finds the root cause of your suffering, you will keep getting sick no matter how many antibiotics you take. Meditation as a band-aid, as an aspirin, is like jumping from boat to boat to boat. Not getting across, just treading water.
Drip, Drip, Drips offers you one boat, the vehicle of mindfulness meditation practice, applied to your everyday life in everyday ways. A little bit at a time adds up to consistent benefits, insights and understandings.
Each month you will get two newsletters with a small teaching and once monthly I will offer you a meditation prompt.
And….
if you decide to subscribe to Drip, Drip, Drip for $5/month you will also have access to:
* Ask Me Anything: Send me your questions about practice, Buddhism, dharma, why I like the word “ordinary”….anything at all!
* Check It Out: recommendations for reading, listening, moving, creating, contemplating.
MINDFULNESS MEDITATION PROMPT
Here is a sound meditation for whenever you find yourself waiting - for a train on the subway platform, in the airport, when a friend is late.
Relax your jaw and all around your ears.
Now, begin to notice the sounds around you. Then, identify just one sound and listen to that. Then a second sound. And a third. Then see if you can hear them all at the same time.
Maybe you will have a sense of soundscape. Or the sensation of sound moving, getting closer and then fading away. This is one way to be awake to your environment instead of in your head.
Also notice your emotional response.
Does this relax you? Give you a feeling of spaciousness? Is it interesting? Are you typically an impatient person?
Perhaps this will help you develop the quality of patience, which is said to be the antidote to agression and resentment. Patience is the antidote to anger and is considered an act of generosity to yourself and others.
Try this for the next month and see what happens!
You’re currently a free subscriber to Drip, Drip, Drip and will always receive two monthly newsletters. To receive a third newsletter with Ask Me Anything and Check It Out, and to participate in comments, please support my work by upgrading to paid subscriber.
OPPORTUNITIES TO MEDITATE WITH ME:
MINI-RETREATS:
And if you made it this far, here is a gift for you:
You’re currently a free subscriber to Drip, Drip, Drip. There is no paywall here. If you’re able support my work financially, consider subscribing for $5/mo to receive a third newsletter with Ask Me Anything and Check It Out.
And, thank you for meditating.