In Nov 2019 Mae Yo sent me a number of YouTube videos to aid my practice and fuel my contemplations. I am going to share the videos and my replies to Mae Yo, as well as her comments back to me. I intend to leave this conversations entirely unaltered. I am creating a new tag/section for these particular entries so they are easily delineated, searched and found. Nonetheless they also…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 17: An End to The Interruption
This a continuation of the last blog. If you haven’t read previously then please go back and read ‘Part 16’. My Dear Reader, I thank you for bearing with me on this looooonnnggg recap of my early 2020 “interruption in our regularly scheduled program (an orderlyish, linearish blog tracing my meandering dhamma path)”, this here was the final recap post of that Post-Retreat Interruption Series. It is simply a brief…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 16: A Thousand Times The Fool
This a continuation of the last blog. If you haven’t read previously then please go back and read ‘Part 15’. In this blog, I will begin just after the last blog left off and end with a much more recent contemplation, from 6 months later, when I circled back to the topic of meaning in rupa and found a new depth and clarity. If you recall, in the last blog…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 14: Alana The Great Rupa Whisperer
In the wake of my cake baking contemplation and seeing the extreme limits on my control/tendency to use rupa arrangements to define who I am, I had gone to get my nails done. About a week later, looking down at them, I caught myself feeling surprised that the polish had started chipping so soon. At lightning speed, I caught myself thinking, “I have been being so careful with them.” Then…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 13: Alana the Great Arranger
After all of my contemplations I was beginning to see that there was nothing innately special in my objects or my body. Just varying, shifting arrangements of 4 elements. I knew I was not my arrangements, and yet, I couldn’t shake the belief that those arrangements, and my ability to bring them about, must prove something about ME. Alana the great arranger! I knew I had a huge wrong view remaining – that…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 12: A Major Breakthrough Part 2
This blog is a direct continuation on the previous blog, “Interruption Part 11: A Major Breakthrough Part 1”. If you have not read that blog yet please go ahead and read it first before you continue on with this one. Does rupa do what I think/ want/imagine in an absolute sense or in relation to myself? Is a quality fixed/innate in myself — Again I started thinking about beauty. I realized that…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat Part 11: A Major Breakthrough Part 1
After Several weeks of chewing on all the insights I had gained during and after my line Chats with Mae Neecha, I felt finally ready to send a synthesis of my thoughts and understandings to Mae Neecha and Mae Yo. Below is the email I sent. I have divided it into two parts/ blogs as it is quite long. Hey Mae Neecha — I sure do hope this email finds you well….
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat (Part 10 ): A Mini Breakthrough
Several weeks after I had closed-out my exchange with Mae Neecha I went back to review our Line chat and see if I could squeeze any more wisdom juice out of it. I saw the following exchange: A: I still think I can use my cute yellow purse to convince people of my awesomeness even if I don’t really control the bag itself. Actually, I think I can convince some people…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat (Part 9 ): Self-Prescribed Remedy
A Post ‘Course Correction’ Plan for Further Progress A: I think I have a plan for right now: 1) look for evidence that shit doesn’t turn out like I expect and see both sides/full picture more clearly ( example: the restaurant we are on last night had good food, but the seat cushions were all stained and it disgusted me). 2) look specifically at my belongings. What are their nature (4e)…
Rupa+Nama = Aha! Contemplation After the 2019 Retreat (Part 8 )
This blog is a direct continuation of the 6th, so if you haven’t covered it yet, please head back there to read that one first. In that blog we explored how rupa forms the foundation for concepts like love, hate, goodness, cleanliness, etc. We left off with a simple question I had for Mae Neecha: What is the rest of the story? Here we will recap a bit and then launch…