PoiPriestess

What I got out of this silence was a gift I never could have gotten had I gone to North Fork: anchors in my own home to my own unrelenting ability to sit with myself and ignore soooooo many distractions. For me, breaking the silence began first when Hunter called me and I answered the [...]

For years I’ve been hearing about Ken Wilber’s work, integral thinking and his AQAL model. During the last 3 days of my sit I listened to his Kosmic Consciousness audio product which I highly recommend. It was as if, for me, years of things I sort of understood all clicked into place and suddenly the [...]

On Monday, I had one of the best opportunities to notice my sensations as fear arises. As I was sitting, I heard noises at my front door. After living at my residence for nearly 3 years, I’m fairly familiar with the sounds made on the front steps of the house, so when the sound of [...]

Relieved to have access to my email – amazing my attachment to it, really – I found myself really moved on Thanksgiving day by all the people who decided to contact me and send me wonderful messages of gratitude. Having my original time piece stop working and having to use my phone to time my [...]

After not chewing for 7 days, I simply wanted to chew on a big steak. Nothing else really seemed interesting — just a nice, juicy, rare, steak. An interesting craving to sit with. Excellent practice. And that was the point of doing them both together for me — to notice my own cravings around what [...]

My sleep schedule got dramatically off Goenka’s plan. I tossed and turned for hours. Shortly after midnight the senna tea was working and I found myself up late on and off the toilet for a few hours. The subsequent burning sensitive being… Invigorating… inspired me to do a 1 hour sit at 2 am. The [...]

Solitary confinement is starting to make sense. I’m making a break for it today when I go and move the car – ah, the great outdoors. I haven’t been outside since Wednesday and here it is Monday of the following week. Hmmm. Had I gone to North Fork, I would have been forced to walk [...]

One of my sits this afternoon was dedicated to one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known: Mom. I love my Mom. It’s not that I don’t love my Dad, merely that it’s beside the point (and, to be clear, I love him deeply). Dad’s the kind of guy who mostly doesn’t care about [...]

Everything changed on Day 4. Before sleeping on day 3, I had profuse thoughts which kept arising and would not pass away that were of a sensual nature – something about showers and my lover. I finally indulged these thoughts so, there it was, precept 7 out the door. That of course led to precept [...]

As if to reaffirm my choice to stay at home, I was in the middle of a sit where I just kept sneezing. I projected myself into the meditation hall and decided the person who would have been sitting in front of me was grateful. Even though it was only day 3, I had decided [...]

When Sioux and I did the Master Cleanse 4 years ago, we made a huge pot of the stuff and we’d have afternoon tea. In the book we read, they suggested getting peppermint tea to use as a laxative to help facilitate additional elimination and to take it each afternoon. I had found that for [...]

The 4 am wakeup bell was just as hard in the comfort of my own bed… perhaps harder. I mean, what was I doing? The mantra of the day on all the breaks from the meditation was, “only 9 more days”” and on the inside, I thought that didn’’t bode well for my success. I [...]

Waking up sick had me clear that going to the 10 day was a bad idea. Instead, after getting coaching from several people but mostly because of my conversation with Travis (wherein he pointed out that I seemed more juiced by the idea to stay home), I decided to stay at home and do the [...]

In preparation for the December 11 Union Square show, I’m running a fire dancing performance class with 21 students. We’re holding the class at The Palace of Fine Arts under this really beautiful dome. Seems like a good place to hold a practice, rain or shine, right? Well, it seems like it, but in reality, [...]