[/meditation]

After ten days of learning, two days of silence and then hanging out all day Saturday to catch up on all we didn’t say for those two days, my meditation friends and I parted ways as I leapt out of the taxi we were sharing in favor of catching a Ring Road bus to Mark’s house. But I’ll see them tonight for dinner in Thamel.

So now it’s back to Nepal-flavored life as usual. Except that I’m trying to incorporate meditation into my daily life. Already difficult, as I didn’t leap out of bed at 0545am to drink tea at 0600 to meditate at 0630, breakfast at 0730, etc. How to do this?

To make matters more complicated, because my work at the clinic is complete, I had to move out. So I’ve relocated to Patan (Mark’s flat) and don’t really have space to call my own for the next month. And we’re going trekking. Hm. Maybe I’ll put meditation on hold and work to maintain the five layperson vows of Tibetan Buddhism:

1. No killing
2. No stealing
3. No sexual misconduct
4. No lying
5. No drinking, smoking, drugs

Well, ok. I’ll work on four out of five; the ‘no drinking’ is out of the question; a beer is a rare pleasure, but one I’m not willing to renounce quite yet.