Day 2

Day 1 was an absolute joy!  One of the peripheral, yet essential, aspects of this type of practice is the rekindling of the relationship to the Eternal Witness, the one within who observes everything with complete independence.  The scriptures say this is Atman, witness of speech but not the speaker, witness of actions but not the doer, witness of thought but not the thinker.  I am happy to accept that name, but it is far more amazing to experience this like a friendship and this true friend does to seem to need a name. 

So, together, we witnessed all of my words yesterday.  I am pretty confident that I did not speak anything that was obviously sinful, but there was this nagging question of how to relate to mundane speech like the nonsense I speak to my dog.  There was a point in the day when I called my beautiful, elder father.  How would I judge the words I used with him?  It struck me that the entire conversation was an act of Devotion, no different than when I am with him and caring for him.  From that perspective, relative to whether my words were helpful or unhelpful to the goal of life, it seemed that the actual words I used were less important than the intent behind them.  To engage in acts of Devotion is tremendously beneficial! So I joked and told stories and laughed with joy.  After that, my mundane words to my husband and to our dog took on a sacred dimension of love and devotion that was beautiful.  

Day 1 was relatively “easy” as I didn’t leave the house and engage in talking with the general public.  How nice to have a warm-up day and what helpful initial lessons.