Don't get carried away

I am so enjoying my e-mails from 108 Zen books, the sense of human contact with someone whose voice is pleasing and whose practice is serious. It makes me think again about what I can do with this blog.

- I like to report what's happening with me, how practice is helping me, because I think that might motivate someone else; but it feels like bragging.

- I could talk about exactly what is my practice now, as Genju does.

[Right now I could and will go take today's first dose of immunosuppressants. A little break.  Then I will meditate, because this morning routine is my current focus in the ongoing project of Forming Good Habits.  A discipline, you could say.  It is one place my foolishly expensive Droid is doing its job, sending me an alarm every five minutes until I turn it off.  Bought it on impulse, but it helps to control mine.]

Back, just for a moment - the electricians haven't called yet.  Today we are having a major upgrade done to bring the house up to code, and the obvious result of that is near-panic on both our parts, for we love our computers.  So I'll try to get in a word about the current practice.

Long-time readers know I had lost my practice, you might say, when I was so ill last year.  It hasn't been easy to get back in the habit, which is simple:  10-15 minutes of body work, 20 minutes of meditation. Part of my problem is my enthusiasm/creativity/impulses - all these are on a spectrum, I guess, of mental/emotional energy.  This energy has come back since the transplant, taking me to a place I had almost forgotten.  What was happening to me in the morning was I'd make that first cup of coffee, sit down at the computer, get "carried away," as my Teacher puts it, as in "Experience everything, but don't get carried away."  That sounds simple, but it's a koan I carry, and has surprising depth.

I decided that to get my practice back I would vow to make that first cup of coffee, do whatever I wished while I drank it, no more than half an hour, then sit . . . Whoops, the electricians are here.  More later.