Our topic this week, after sitting and enjoying some tea, is how both meditation practice and expressive arts like writing or taking photos are ways to enter into life more fully. In Mark Nepo's book, Drinking From The River Of Light: The Life of Expression, he writes:

The simplest and hardest thing to do each day is to be here–fully, completely, without turning away. There’s a story I love about a master who sends his apprentice to meditate by a river until he’s learned all the river has to say...Sometimes, we get so lost in our practice and devotion that we forget that the goal is to get wet. There is much we can learn from watching, but observing at its best enlivens us to participate. The aim of watching the river of life is to join the river of life.

We talked about the ways we keep ourselves separate from life, by judging it, resisting it. Next, we discussed the difference between attention and awareness, and then practiced four stages of awareness/attention practice, moving from open to close.