Hey everyone! Welcome to Days 9-10 of 21DMC!

My apologies for not posting the Day 9 thread in time yesterday. The wireless connection in my home was down (it's still down now in fact, so I'm in a cafe right now actually writing this thread) and many cafes here close at 7-8pm latest, so I couldn't post the update despite my utmost intentions to do so.

An encounter

This afternoon, I had the craziest encounter ever since moving to my flat in London (been staying here for 2 months). As most of you know, I'm flying to US soon in a few weeks' time. I'm moving out of my flat in 10 days' time and heading to my friends' place to stay with them before I leave London.

In my last days in my current flat, my landlords have suddenly taken a very hostile approach towards me and my roommate, and have been shouting at us over the smallest things, namely linked with cleanliness (or the lack of it, though I really didn't find anything unclean about what they had been complaining about) in the home. As you might guess, that took place this afternoon too!

So while everyone was engaged in a shouting match earlier just now, I was just standing at the side and observing everyone lose their composure at each other. One of my landlords descended into very uncivilized, unclassy persona as she was telling us off, while my roommate became very upset and burst into tears at one point, and she (my roommate) remained very angered and agitated even hours after the encounter.

Somehow though, I didn't feel angered at the situation at all, nor was I compelled to retaliate, even though we were wronged about several things we were accused about. After the commotion, it was long out of my mind as well - I was all excited about getting down to work on the blog, 21DMC and my upcoming projects, and meeting up with my friends later. Interestingly enough too, during the big "fight", I suddenly got reminded of this quote: “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.” – Rene Descartes. I immediately recalled our 21DMC that's going on right at this moment, and couldn't help but make a little smile to myself - Because I know all of you are cultivating yourselves through meditation, and raising yourselves so high that no offense or low consciousness actions can ever effect you.

Meditation itself is one of the very tools that enable us to raise our consciousness and to see reality as it is, so we can then act in our best intentions, straight from the heart - vs. one that's driven by ego. Now that we are already almost in the middle of 21DMC, you are making so much headway in cultivating this habit. I can't wait to see more of your progress in the days ahead.

Group Meditation Chart

Here are is the group progress chart for Week 2 so far:



To get your meditation sessions recorded in this chart, please fall into the respective day's group threads and report your meditation progress as well as the length of time you've meditated. Thank you!

Share Your Meditation Experience For Days 9-10!

1. Were you able to complete your meditation practice today? Why/Why not?
2. If yes, how did your meditation go? What meditation did you do? Where did you meditate? How long did you meditate for?
3. Anything you want to share about the meditation itself?
4. Anything you have learned for yourself today? (whether related or non-related to meditation)

Look forward to reading your updates!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Day 9
I meditated for about 5 minutes in my dad's car in the morning and for 8 minutes in the evening

Day 9: I meditated for 9 minutes. I wanted to meditate for at least 20 minutes but it was not possible.
All through the day, it being a Sunday, I was busy with going to church, cooking for the family and then catching up with other chores that screamed for attention.
By the time I found the time to sit by myself and meditate there were some interruptions. I wish I could fence off a space in the house and have a nice little notice board that says " Keep off. Meditation in progress."
I liked Celes's post regarding how she responded to the shouting match around her. I liked the quote by Rene Descartes even more and hope to remember it whenever I am tempted to lose my temper.

Hey Celes,

It's really strange that the landlords start being unpleasant right near the end of the renting period. I can only guess that they are trying to get you to leave earlier because they got a good chance to re-rent it to someone else?

Anyway, you do well not to let it get to you. Other people's rudeness can do little to affect us if we don't allow it, and confrontational people revel in conflict, indifference hurts them much more than anything else could.

I hope you had a great weekend.

Day 9: I meditated for 44 minutes.
Day 10: I meditated for 42 minutes.

Details in my journal, as usual.

Day 9:
Today I meditated for 50 minutes. It felt soooo good!!!

Day 9 - Meditated for 40 minutes

Dear Celes,
I'm sorry to hear you had to experience such an unpleasant situation. But you rightly rose above the drama, kudos to you!
Sending hugs and support to you
Chin up, and don't let it ruin your day


DAY 9 meditation:
20 minutes silent meditation, sitting in my living room chair.

Day 9.

Meditated for at least 6 mins today.

Sending you hugs and lotsa good energy Celes!

Thanks guys! I actually found the incident more amusing and intriguing than anything. Not in the "haha this is so childish" way, but in a "wow this doesn't usually happen in real life that it's so fascinating" kind of way. By being in contexts outside of what we're normally used to see, it literally helps us to grow. So I'm actually quite happy that I got to be a part of the encounter. You certainly don't get to see this every day, lol!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life

Hi everyone!

Tonight I completed 60 min of meditation. I used two different kinds, one active yoga and one still, laying on my back.
It was a well needed session today

I wish everyone a great start of the week!

Celes, I hope things goes well with the landlord over there Good job in raising above their attitudes and staying true to yourself

Hi, For day 9 I have done 10 minutes of meditating outside by a lake, in the sun while waiting for my husband turing up with the picknick basket. It was really nice.

Day 10 has just begun here so I will come back with what I have done (or not done) later.

Day 9 was a good 20 minutes - sitting is better (see journal).

---

Day 10 another solid 20 minutes that i completed just a few minutes ago. I dont open up the laptop until i have done the sit. Feeling better in the sitting position, and find using equanimous attention on the pain spots makes them melt away and keeps my attention.


Celes - Im a landlord too and know how stressful it can be to go through changing tenants. Sometimes we get too caught up in the hassles of changing. Ive found in all things, that the words of Master Cheng Yen from Still Thoughts helps me: Take praises as warnings and admonishments as lessons.

Best wishies to all roomies out there! I now choose to live alone so for sure is only me to blame and because i rent i try to be the best tenant I can be.

Good to hear you're doing fine Celes, despite some people apparently having a very bad day!

Day 9: Meditated 5 minutes - Breathing Meditation
Nice way to finish the day and ease the mind before going to sleep in a few minutes.

Day 9
15 walking meditation
30 minute guided imagery meditation on my bedroom floor
I'm so proud of myself, lol.

DAY 9

-1st time: 4:27 Intro and First Music Meditation
-2nd time: 14 min sample LifeFlow

(10-17-2011 02:20 AM)Celes Wrote:  Interestingly enough too, during the big "fight", I suddenly got reminded of this quote: “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.” – Rene Descartes. I immediately recalled our 21DMC that's going on right at this moment, and couldn't help but make a little smile to myself - Because I know all of you are cultivating yourselves through meditation, and raising yourselves so high that no offense or low consciousness actions can ever effect you.

It's wonderful you managed to rise above the unpleasantness Celes!

I would be curious to hear your opinion on this matter of "rising above" things. When I mentally make an effort to rise above or dissociate myself from an unpleasant event of other people's egos, I find myself feeling myself stepping mentally back or mentally rising above it. Today someone mentioned that doing this may be dangerous because it's almost as if I'm stepping out of my body by doing this, and that that's not advisable because if you're not in your body, you're open to scary stuff happening like possessions :/ This really frightened me because I'd never thought that could happen! What is your opinion on this?



Also: For the records: Day 9: I did 30 minutes meditation today.

Hi everyone. I have been away because I went to NYC to participate in a breast cancer walk in Central Park. My 2.5 days on the road were action packed, sometimes overwhelming, but worth the memories made. Being in that big a city with all those people and all that noise are not for me and just when I could use my meditating skill it just didn't happen as I was never able to be aloone.

Tonight I meditated for 15 minutes and decided to attach my meditation to a quote, sort of like a mantra. I ran across this Einstein quote: "out of clutter find simplicity. Out of discord find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.". I thouht it fit my mood and needs. I like meditating with a mantra.

Day 09

Hi everybody. Today I meditated 30 minutes on my couch. This is the longest I have meditated since the challenge began.

Since Celes's post a few days ago I have stopped trying to not think. I used to do it each time I meditated. Now I just let my thoughts come and observe them and then let them go. I find that meditation is much more enjoyable now. Also time seems to pass quicker now. I used to get restless when meditating for more than 10 minutes but today 30 passed seemingly in the blink of an eye!

(10-17-2011 08:22 AM)zoom6628 Wrote:  Ive found in all things, that the words of Master Cheng Yen from Still Thoughts helps me: Take praises as warnings and admonishments as lessons.

I honestly don't understand why you should take praise as a warning. Can you explain?

Day 9: 10 minutes of Tara Brach something or another.

Squeezed this in at the last moment while my husband fixed dinner. For some reason I slept in a bit this morning, and my son was already up and working on his school project when I woke up. I let that get my attention, and the rest of the day just went by in a similar blur. I almost skipped the day entirely, but decided that SOMETHING would be better than nothing.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the challenge and my desire to get that tick every day on the chart, it wouldn't have happened.

I'll take what I can get, I am sure it has helped my soul!

20 minutes - I really need to focus on breathing. It's very irregular, and sometimes my lungs feel heavy/lazy. (I don't smoke ).

that's cool about how you handled it Celes! You now have three more potential followers for your blog...your landlords and your roommate . Just mail them a link