Pickup Meditation

           Saturday I spent 6 hours meditating, a wonderful series of meditations that were deeply fulfilling. Sunday I decided to do the same thing but knowing that one the afflictive emotions that often happens to me on a Sunday afternoon is loneliness I felt that it would be a good time to address this emotion with meditative quiescence . I sat down and started meditating and the phone rang. It was a good friend of mine IP who called up and wanted to know if he could come over and meditate. I immediately invited him and he arrived about ten minutes later.
            We were doing Alan Wallace's timed meditations (24 minutes) and we did one realizing that the theme of it was sloth and torpor. Repairing to the kitchen we had a cup of green tea when the phone rang . IP's girlfriend was on the line and was invited so the meditation grew. After another 24 minutes I called several other people and invited them and another showed up .In the mean time the girlfriend left.
             This is the first time I have ever played a game of pickup meditation. People would come meditate for as long as they could and leave and others would arrive. I am going to do this more often. I did not however get to meditate on compassion for loneliness .
             This morning another fascinating meditation. However it was not about light and happiness. It was a meditation whose form is  called settling the mind in it's natural state. That is the process of being aware and watching the mind like something that is on a movie screen. What was playing on the screen was feeling and being a failure. All of the things that I labeled as failures in my life, not becoming an eagle scout, losing money on various investments, getting divorced, not living  up to my parents expectations,not living up to my expectations.  Everything that the mind labeled as failures emerged along with the physical feelings that go with those emotions. All of them held in the spaciousness of awareness . All of them just models that did not meet my expectations. The meditation last nearly two hours after which I was amazed and gratified to realize that all the energy that I used to suppress all of that stuff was free and I was happy.