7 Point Mind Training

           My hip hurts, my left knee is sore and I have a cramp in my left foot. I feel absolutely wonderful. I climbed up Camelback mountain the tallest Mountain in Phoenix yesterday and did it in a relatively rapid rate. Got into doing it without preparing well enough so I am sore today.

          People call me up and tell me the latest cures for cancer. Joe asked me about these calls and observed that perhaps they are calling because of their own mortality. If I discorporate from the society it reflects upon the diminution of their own world . Much along the line of Dryden's poem admonishing " to ask not for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee."

          BUt this is not the mood that I am in. I spent this morning repairing the ramada in the  back yard. The wood beam on the south side is separating and to repair it I have been drilling holes from top to bottom  every two feet in running length and dropping 17 in. bolts through the holes. When the bolts are tightened they draw the separating pieces of wood back together. By having a two by four underneath I am able to straighten the beams and reinforce them to so that the structure will last many more years. Not as aesthetic but it does preserve the structure.

           I am preparing for a week long meditation retreat on 7 point mind training, taught by my friend Alan Wallace next week in Santa Barbara. It is a prescription to relieve the suffering of existence by dedicating the merits of actions to the benefits of all sentient beings and to follow the teaching of the dharma. I will elaborate.

           I met Alan at a Lucid dream retreat . The experience of lucid dream allows one to realize the dream like nature of existence on  more and more profound levels. Using that insight there are practices that lead to this awakening, among them meditations on the great kindness of everyone and other meditations .

         For me the most compelling is to use the process to apply towards unfavorable circumstances. Cancer seems to qualify as an unfavorable circumstance and this meditation and study  is the best method to cure the mind of its fears.  I am still studying and will say more later.