A Know-it-all In Search of Beginner’s Mind, Part 2 — The quest continues

When last I visited this topic, I was hopeful I could continue Zen meditation on my own. I have never been able to pursue any discipline more demanding and obvious than brushing my teeth each night before going to bed. I can sink into habits, bad or good, and then continue them forever. It’s starting new ones against my normal drift that’s hard. Self-discipline is a whole nother story.

So, reader, I did not continue on my own. But a couple of weeks ago my friend in the condos here said she wanted to start doing Zen meditation. She’s not a newcomer to meditation. She took the Transcendental course many years ago and practiced it for a while. She does Qi Gong. She is, in my opinion, more suited to it than I am. Better at it. Not supposed to say or even think that, I know. Very not-Zen.

But nevertheless, I asked if she’d like to do it daily, with me. Maybe with a little chair yoga beforehand. So we began, a week ago Monday, and so far haven’t missed a day. Or an evening rather, because that’s when we do it, at about 9:00 pm, masked and 10 feet apart, in straight-back chairs in the large, empty community dining / meeting / party room.

We started with 10 minutes, bumped it up to 12 then 13. I will probably allow bumping up to 15 next week. (I’m in charge. Or maybe it’s just…