Practice Corner

On a yearlong retreat call in early May, the Guide was emphasizing, as I have often heard her say before, how so very important it is to work with the weekly assignments and find multiple ways to take them in: We read them several times; we listen to an excerpt read on each call (and how so very different it can sound listening to it being read by someone else!); we record it and listen to it. We take our time, letting it sink in. No hurry, but with intention, letting the repetition do its work. Attempting to stand in the same place as the writer did, looking to see what we can see about what is being pointed at as we stay with it. 
 
“Yes!” was my response. 
 
And then in one of those horrid (and blessed) moments, I realized that somewhere along the way I had stopped recording the assignment. Still reading it, still listening to it being read on the call, but not recording it myself. How did that happen?! I watched egocentric karmic conditioning swoop in, with its attempt to make that mean something.
 
“No” was my response.
 
I just simply (and that “simply” took years of practice) said, “Thank you,” picked up the recorder, recorded the assignment and started listening to it. I have a lovely opportunity to listen at least twice a day because I drive to work. It’s like practicing musical scales over and over again. Or doing the same yoga poses over and over, approaching them from innumerable slightly different angles to experience something new. Letting the reading seep in deeply, letting the body receive it, beyond conditioned mind.
 
And I must say, as the Guide is fond of always pointing out, recording and listening completely changes everything. Listening to the weekly assignment over and over again takes me to a deep place, a place that is actually yearned for. I see so much more.
 
And listening to the assignment at day’s end is a lovely segue into listening and recording about insights. As one sentence from a weekly assignment puts it, “The more we practice ending suffering by being more aware, the more aware we are of being Awareness itself”!
 
I am oh so incredibly grateful for practice reminders and for the practitioner who is willing to take them in and practice them!
 
Gasshō,
Ann