Before that...

This evening I am a very tired but satisfied boy, with no desire to think much at all.  So this is me writing a blog devoid of any intellectual effort whatsoever.  Ah....

1) A long, good day, primarily spent writing a thesis proposal: What notions of “civilized” and “uncivilized” do sixth graders bring with them into the classroom, and how does learning about historical resistance to civilization affect those notions? 

In other words, basically an excuse for me to study and teach historical resistance to the forces of civilization :) 

Really though, I have a hypothesis I want to test.  Studying resistance to civilization is one of the clearest ways to portray the intelligence of historically marginalized peoples, people like peasants who are stereotyped as rather dimwitted.  So I want to see how teaching these intelligences effects the notions students have of civilized and uncivilized, i.e., of who is smart and who is stupid, who is worthy of respect (and study) and who is not.   

2) Before all that, a lovely morning coffee with a friend from Young Urban Zen.  We talked about the recent proposal to form study groups, which has many of us excited.  I hope we can bring a great deal of sincerity to it!  We discussed how our continuous collective effort to understand the dharma would be one of the best ways to strengthen our young sangha.  Morning coffee with zen friends = one fine way to start the day!  In other words, start sending zen friends early morning coffee invites :) 

3) Before that, a way-seeking mind talk, which I always enjoy... people have so many stories and so many different ways of describing how they came to the path.

 

4) Before that, a lovely morning zazen.  It was one of the few times that I've sat with my eyes closed for the entire period.   I was in some deep, calm place because...

5) I woke up at 4AM and practiced pranayama.  Unable to sleep I had practiced at intervals all throughout the night.  I could feel my prana become clearer and clearer after each round, and when I finally fell asleep I had powerful dreams, from which I awoke with a calm desire to immediately reengage the practice.  All of which has me thinking, once again, of re-embracing the part of myself that is so drawn to yoga.