mindfulness task #9

Meanwhile mail from my dharma brother Ryushin [dragon-heart] at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Oregon, USA:

Greetings all. Last week our task was smiling as we went through our day to see how it affects our state of mind. I hope you all appreciated this task. Some of you will recall that Chozen [Jan Chozen Bays Roshi, our senior teacher] proposed a book of 52 mindfulness tasks awhile back. Now that she’s finished her book on mindful eating (which is at the publishers and will hopefully be released next year) she is directing her energy towards that book. As a result, we here at the monastery have taken up weekly mindfulness tasks again as a group. Part of the book will be some of people’s results doing the particular task. We would greatly appreciate your feedback/insights [on this and tasks in the past].                  

One other point of note is that, after almost two years of serving as mindfulness task-master, I’m passing the baton to my Dharma brother Jogen. Now, before I forget, the task for this week is silly walks [inspired by John Cleese of Monty Python fame]. The idea is to do some silly form of walking (skipping, bouncing, dancing, or anything else you are moved as long as it’s silly) when you notice yourself in a sour mood, if you’re caught in thinking, or to do it at least once a day to see if it changes your state of mind. Please enjoy this task, and see what you earn.

Palms together, Ryushin