Seeking help with practice & Buddhist contacts

I would like to make some serious contacts with people practising Buddhism in the UK. My practice keeps coming up against a brick wall: initial enthusiasm for meditation etc.,then I gradually get sloppy,miss a day here & there,& finally I quit meditating altogether,even though I retain my Buddhist beliefs,because my mind is so lazy & so easily distracted.I think this is partly because I'm practising in a vaccuum; I don't know any other Buddhists or even anybody of a religious/ philosophical cast of mind.& because of long working hours I can't get to my local meditation class.

Is anybody else in this situation? Anybody got any advice about how I can overcome my own sloppiness? Anybody just want to say hello? Feel free to PM me or answer on the board.

 

Well, I am a cook. I am also a Vajrayanist of Dzogchen bent. I wouldn't be anything else as I am totally fulfilled in the level of detail of what I find to be truth. Perfectly content at last and moreso every day. The satisfaction is a stream of bliss.

I also am fairly disfunctional and have had 37 cooking jobs in the last fifteen years. The longest one has been for two years, some others for a year and a half and most for 6 months to a year with some years having had many many jobs.

I have been on again off again regarding meditation for my whole life. I started TM at fifteen, and then got into Buddhism at thirtyfive. The teachings have just been really paying off over the last year.

I still cannot really integrate cooking with meditation practice. Some things just aren't meant to be. I mean, I have come to accept this though finally. 37 jobs proves a certain thing which one needen't fight forever. That one just can't integrate. That said, I now work for the length of time that I must and then quit when I must. In essence, fuck work I must meditate, fuck meditation I must work.

That said, I try to carry one thing into the next and maybe there is more silence and bliss and joy in the job now. Though not enough to overcome the exhaustion in the final hour. I still aspire like the athelete to overcome all adversity, but I don't think that I shall.

But who cares, at least I do have the means to recover my sanity when I'm off, unlike many people. And in that sense I do have a wish fulfilling jewel in my lamas and in the dharma and in the sangha. I really love them.

Tell us more about yourself, if you don't mind. I check in every few days so I'll be back.

 

www.tricycle.com

 

Hey Chodpa,
You're right, I guess, getting hung up on not being able to sustain a proper routine of meditation isn't going to help.Maybe that's just more demons, more angry karma gnawing away at me.
I am a care worker by trade ... well, that's what I do for money. My heart's trade is poetry. I write poems and publish a small magazine incorporating poetry and writing mostly from Britain and the USA. I'm modestly successful in that, or known at least, and I'd love to be able to do it all the time, but it doesn't generate enough money. So I go to the other work feeling like a bit of an imposter - sit in team meetings composing poetry in my head!
I realised early on the truth of "life is suffering" as Buddha taught and understood instinctively about emptiness. But I still get hung up in human dramas of ego and unnecessary fears even though I know it's all empty and I long for some kind of breakthrough to a deeper understanding.Maybe I should stop longing? I get frustrated with myself because I see my mind as a recalcitrant child.

 

Here is something to remember about cooking. Cook out of love. Thats what I do, and it keeps me satisfied, as well as working wonders for presentation and flavor.

 

Hello
Not sure where you are in the UK but a good place to start would be one of the Samye Dzong or ROKPA centres in the UK. From there there are a wide range of contacts. Providing you are interested in Tibetan Buddhism. Also you might be interested in visiting Samye Ling in Scotland...Its how i first got interested in Buddhism. Go to www.samyeling.org and check it out.
Good luck to you!
In dharma,
Uma
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