11th November - transition

A most wonderful day to pause and relax, before 'putting the heat on' again for the next week. Batteries recharged!

Despite all the miserable weather of the last few days it's good to be back here in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. I'm in the good company and feel good here!

The weather since I've come here has been rainy and cold, with some occasional killer wind. But the Christmas decorations & lights in the town make a difference and bright the space up in those gloomy days. And the oranges smell reminds me of Christmas. They do smell differently during this time of year.

In the afternoon I have the sense of having enough rest and already moving into 'on mode', almost as if kind of practice gravity made me move on - this I recognize as a good sign, however, I do not respond to it, sticking rigidly to my plan of break. Not a big harm done, but in a way, a missed opportunity. Would it not be an example of damping the spontaneous arising then ? So there we go - life experience keeps providing with the learning opportunities...

Apart from relaxing and getting some rest I also do the night shift (8 to 8). It goes well. But before work we had gone shopping with Marek. I got some rocket and oranges, which M. recommended to use with the fennel, so I got one and had this salad at work later and boy, was it not delicious!

And an interesting quotation from the book (Vayeze's book on G.I.G. teaching) I picked up today:

... but all this accumulated information, these experiences and conclusions drawn from them, belong to other people. For us, all this is theoretical. We may perhaps believe it insofar as it does not conflict with our experience or with ideas we have already acquired; but, in fact, the conclusions of other can really convince us only to the extent that we discover them again for ourselves. Books can help guide our experience, but we can never be sure exept of that which we have verified and lived through ourselves...


After work have shower, and spen some time at the computer. I contact the GC office to inquire about the upcoming At-A-Distance course that begins on Monday, not much time left. It's going to be a short one, but feels like a very good one with a lot on offer. I need it! Hmm, wants, likes, wishes, needs etc. No doubt about this one!

Also call my sister in Poland and update on news. Basically, things are good, but haven't moved on to the next stage yet.

To bed soon, it's 9.52 am, but first the sitting.

Ah, and something I couldn't only keep to myself: we watched the movie recently: The Revenge of the Drunken Master. The storyline taken from the cover goes like this: Accidentally discovering the operations of the blood ninja gangsters, a mischievous young man masters the skills of the drunk first and proceeds to fight against them. But the gangsters join forces, vowing to kill him before the young master destroys them all.

And he did! But for me there was too much talk, they could have beaten each other more instead!