Theme for 2024

Off the back of a review of the year, and some thinking about my bigger picture philosophy, I scribbled a big buncha notes.

Practice

My theme for 2024 is going to (try and) be rest.

“I well get more rest, be more at rest, and leave the rest aside.”

Resting and relaxing is something I have not been doing very well during 2023.

Some things that I find relaxing:

I know that part of me does want to rest, to relax. I find “close your eyes” instructions in a meditation session very easy, quick, pleasing. I often find I gently resist the “open your eyes” instructions at the end of a session: I want to stay sitting there, eyes closed, resting and relaxing.

Philosophy

I keep finding myself being drawn back to Zen and Daoism. I’m going to dig more deeply into Zen this year, leaning more towards it than psychology or philosophy or nonduality or Buddhism more broadly.

I’ll be focusing on (what I will call pig) Zen:

I’m keeping notes from reading at /thinking/#zen.

Tracker

A short record of what I’ve done, and what I plan to do next.

I’m aiming for a specific topic for each month, to keep myself focused.

January

• Rest
  • Trying longer sits.
• Health: flexibility.
  • Wing Chun stretches.
• Art: music.
  • Making longer, ambient-style, bits of music.
• Mindfulness: sacredness of the everyday.
  • Studying the basics of Zen: a bunch of introduction, instruction, and overview books.
    • Zazen form: sit like a mountain; open eyes, downcast gaze.
  • Cleaning up the kitchen immediately after cooking, before eating.
  • Making the bed immediately after getting up.

January end of month check-in

I did well with these, apart from the Art / music. I only made one track. I had a fun doing it, though, so I’m going to carry this over to February.

I’ve enjoyed studying and implementing Zen things. I have a handful more books that are introduction-like, so I’m going to carry this over to February too.

February

• Rest
  • Learning and cooking some new recipes.
• Health
  • More frequent walking, preferably in nature.
  • Wing Chun exercises.
  • Running.
• Art
  • Making longer, ambient-style, bits of music.
  • Sketching people, especially countours of groups, outlines.
• Mindfulness
  • Continue studying (and immediately putting into practice) the basics of Zen.
  • Being more mindful at work.

February end of month check-in

I didn’t do so well this month. I didn’t do any sketching, and only made one music track. I managed to read a few books, though, including a couple of good Zen ones. I started, and am still, running and am enjoying it a lot.

I’m going to try and be more specific with some of March goals. I often find that helps.

March

• Rest
  • Book a week off in March or April.
  • Start a (re)readthrough of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books.
• Health
  • Keep on running, three times a week.
  • Keep up Wing Chun exercises, four times a week.
• Art
  • Make four longer, ambient-style, bits of music.
  • Join one Urban Sketchers meetup.
• Mindfulness
  • Work through Henry Shukman’s The Way app.
  • Read a bunch of Thich Nhat Hanh books.
  • Do one seaside sit each weekend.

March end of month check-in

A bit mixed, but I’m happy with how it went. In particular, I got a lot from focusing on Thich Nhat Hanh books and (re)discovering how he talks about interbeing.

April

April is a bit of a rest between jobs, and taking another spiral around my philosophy.

• Rest: nature and (the) Culture
  • More nature into daily routines
  • ✔ Continue (re)readthrough of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books
• Health: running and squatting
  • ✔ Continue running
  • ✔ Restart Wing Chun exercises, four times a week
• Art: rivers and rivulets
  • Sketch people and crowds
  • Sketch rows of shops
  • ✔ Portrait-orientation rocks-in-rivers brush strokes
    • ✔ Including reading At the Sea’s Edge, Design for good acoustics, and revisiting Sensitive Chaos.
• Mindfulness: retreats and oneness
  • ✔ One day solo retreat
  • ✔ One day One Mindful Breath Retreat
  • ✔ Revisit my philosophy and my Applied Philosophy for 2024, in particular with updates from Zen.
  • Reading
    • ✔ The Sutra of Hui-neng, Grand Master of Zen: With Hui-neng’s Commentary on the Diamond Sutra
    • ✔ Kensho: Heart of Zen
    • ✔ Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality by Joan Tollifson
    • Good Life: A Zen Precepts Retreat with Cheri Huber (Paperback)
    • Opening to Oneness: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to the Zen Precepts by Nancy Mujo Baker
    • Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion by Thich Nhat Hanh
  • ✔ Revisit The Direct Approach on the Waking Up app (16 Sessions, 2h 31m)
• Work: lightning and busting
  • ✔ Prepare lightning talk (April)
  • Prepare one day workshop (June)

April end of month check-in

Pretty good! Weekend and a week away were both really good for resting. Did lots of reading for fun. Health went well. I did a little bit of sketching and arting and enjoyed it. Did lots of mindfulness things: a solo and a group retreat; revisited my philosophy, read some great books. Prepared and gave a lightning talk, did some good work on the one day workshop. Started a new job that’s fully remote work; keeping an eye on myself with that.

May

First month a new job, so I’m going to aim low. I know from experience that the first few weeks, often months, is really exhausting.

• Rest
  • ✔ Continue (re)readthrough of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books
• Health
  • ✖ Running
  • ✖ Wing Chun exercises
  • Think about “seasonal exercising”
• Art
  • Urban Sketchpomorphisation. Do some more Urban Sketching, but anthropomorphise stuff (like the old ones from August and September last year). More illustrate-y style.
  • A few pages of sketches of Capybaras.
  • Practice sketching people.
    • ✔ Revisit “Drawn on the way”, “Tate: Sketch Club Urban Drawing”, “The Complete Urban Sketching Companion”
      • ✔ Look for more people and figure drawing books. (“5-minute Sketching: People”)
    • Read, do exercises from 5-minute Sketching: People.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ Start draft of a Spectrum of Awareness session for OMB.
  • ✔ Listen to “Explore Nonduality” playlist on Waking Up (15 sessions, 6h)
  • ✔ Revisit (remixing) Precepts.
    • ✔ Read Good Life: A Zen Precepts Retreat with Cheri Huber (Paperback).
    • ✔ Opening to Oneness: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to the Zen Precepts by Nancy Mujo Baker
  • ✔ Revisit The Koan Way series on Waking Up
  • More nature into daily routines.
  • ✔ Final week of May: rather start a new Dharma book, get back into longer silent sits. 20m in the morning, 30m (or longer) in the evening.
• Work
  • ✔ Settle into new job.
  • Prepare one day workshop (June).

May end of month check-in

Rest went well. I found it fairly easy to relax. Maybe because I’m tired.

Health was good, but I stopped running when the weather snapped cold, and then went a bit hibernate-y. That was okay for a few weeks, but I want to get back into it, do more than just big walks.

Art was very patchy. Very little in the way of drawing or music. That’s okay.

Mindfulness was great. Some good reading and thinking and things. The final week, taking a “break” to Just Sit was good.

Work was good. New job is great! It’s fast-paced, but I’m finding it… relaxing. Still tired, though! Still lots of new stuff.

June

I may have be a bit overindexing on the M of my Zen HAM. For June, I’m going to try and focus more on Health and Art. I’ll mostly take Dharma-related reading more slowly this month. When I would usually read, I might do a big sit, shikantaza-style, just sitting, or make some music. Then maybe read a little afterwards.

• Rest
  • ✔ Continue (re)readthrough of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books
• Health
  • Get back into it! Prioritise health over time.
  • Think about “seasonal exercising”.
  • Running, on days that the weather is double digits.
  • Exercises.
• Art
  • Urban Sketchpomorphisation
  • Make some “melodic techno” (Feeling groovy after listening to some TribalNeed. Techno is not usually my thing, but this guy is great!)
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ Continue draft of a Spectrum of Awareness session for OMB
  • ✔ Sit with Original Nature by Henry Shukman on the Waking Up app (6 sessions of 30m)
  • ✔ Read some books on Korean Zen (some bookedmarked books).
• Work
  • ✔ Prepare one day workshop

June end of month check-in

• Rest. Went pretty well. Finished reading all the Culture books.
• Health. Did not go so well. Couldn’t get back into it.
• Art. Did not go so well, but I don’t feel too bad about it.
• Mindfulness. Went well. Co-ran a session at OMB. Read a bunch of Korean Zen. Finding some peace taking a wider perspective.
• Work. Went well. Prepared and ran a workshop a one day workshop.

My plans for June didn’t work out as… planned. The OMB session and the work workshop took up a lot of time and space, and that left me with little energy for much else. Some stuff is carrying forward.

July

• Health
  • ✘ Running, on days that the weather is double digits.
  • ✔ Exercises.
  • ✘ Try a few lessons at Riai Aikido.
• Art
  • ✔ Don’t worry about it this month. Prioritise H, and M.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ No new reading, take a break. Revisit and reflect instead. Revisit precepts, vows.
  • ✔ Just sit, Shikantaza. Sometimes, sit instead of reading or studying.
  • ✔ Revisit The Direct Approach series by Stephan Bodian on the Waking Up app.
  • ✔ House cherishing. Mindful cleaning and caring for my home.
• Work
  • ✔ Read Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew.

July end of month check-in

• Rest. Went pretty well.
• Health. Went well. Didn’t get running again, but did stay active.
• Art. Took a break.
• Mindfulness. Went well. Nice to have a bit of a break from study. But deep dove into reflecting on “rest” (ahem).
• Work. Went well. didn’t write much, but enjoyed the day-to-day.

August

• Rest
  • ✘ Plan and try out some brand new recipes.
• Health
  • ✘ Keep up the exercising.
  • ✘ Get back into running.
• Art
  • ✔ Read Creative Act by Rick Rubin.
  • ✘ Read and paint from “Chinese Landscape Painting Techniques” and “Let’s Try Sumi-e Painting”.
  • ✘ Icons and illustrations: “Logo Design workbook”, “My Icon Library”, “Manual of Ornament”, “Symbol”.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ Reread “Zen mind, beginner’s mind”.
  • ✘ Read some more Zen books.
  • ✔ Listen to “The Practice of Life” series on Waking Up from Charlotte Joko Beck.
  • ✔ Sit with my Metta playlist on Waking Up (6 sessions, 1h 43m)
  • ✘ Sit with The Headless Way playlist on Waking Up (20 sessions, 3h 23m)
  • ✔ Do some 30m sits from Adyashanti’s “Sitting in Stilness” on the Waking up app.
  • ✘ Do (another) solo retreat, with a timetable for structure.

August end of month check-in

• Oof. Bit of a rough month, mostly from stressing about Roxy.
• I’m feeling a bit of fatigue. Definitely some physical fatigue from not sleeping well. but also mental fatigue from this long stretch of one-topic study. My practice feels pretty alive and fresh, after some updates. But the study feels stretched. Perhaps a year is a bit too long, and a quarter is a better horizon for me. Or running with the seasons. Or, like other things, have a bit more of a plan from the start. Light structure, with room to wiggle.

September

• Rest
  • Plan and try out some brand new recipes.
• Health
  • ✘ Get back into exercising.
  • ✘ Get back into running.
  • ✘ Join an evening exercise club. Aikido, Qi Gong, dance?
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ Prepare Beginner’s Mind session for OMB for 2nd October.
  • ✔ Focus on the practical part of practice more than theory.
    • Limit, but not stop, reading.
    • Think about midday sits.
  • ✔ Sit with The Headless Way playlist on Waking Up (20 sessions, 3h 23m)
  • ✘ Listen to and do Journaling for Insight on Waking Up
  • ✘ Do some reading on action and ethics and values
    • Bearing Witness by Bernie Glassman
    • The Bhodisattava Vow by G K Gyatso
    • The Mind of Clover by Robert Aitken
    • Where is the Way by Hsing Yun
    • Twelve steps to a compassionate life by Karen Armstrong
  • ✘ Do (another) solo retreat, with a timetable for structure.
  • ✔ Co-facilitate OMB one-day silent retreat.
  • ✔ Facilitate “Quiz Night” session for OMB.
• Art
  • ✘ Sketchy character. Get back into some kind of drawing. Maybe more Guyz.
  • ✔ Play around with the Medeli MK1 37 Key Mini Keyboard.

September end of month check-in

It went okay! Read a bit about death and it made me feel better. Reading a Joan Tollifson book made me feeling (more) at peace with the (im)perfection of where I am and with how things are. I didn’t do some of the things on my Mindfulness list, but I did others, so that’s fine. Health was fine this month, but I didn’t get back into exercising at all. Enjoyed helping run a retreat. Feeling good about OMB.

October

• Rest
  • ✘ See a handful of Jazz Fest shows.
  • ✔ Skreme! Sketch (out); Read (in); Meditate (both).
• Health
  • ✘ Get back into exercising.
  • ✘ Get back into running.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ “Bathe in the backlog.” No new games or books. Just enjoy what’s there already.
  • ✔ Retreatvenings. A weekend away will be difficult this month, so plan one “retreat” evening a week instead.
  • ✔ Listen to a themed series on Waking Up. Maybe koans again, Sitting in Stillness - Adyashanti, my The Headless Way playlist, Original Nature - Henry Shukman.
• Art
  • ✔ Start learning to read music.
  • ✔ Play around with Keyboard more.
  • ✘ Sketch some bridges.

October end of month check-in

Well, that went… okay. I didn’t manage to get back into proper excerising of running, but I have been doing my usual Walking A Lot, so that’s good. Still ending up reading quite a lot, possibly because of the having a few days of holiday. Had a slightly peculiarly paradoxical experience of meeting work teammates: feeling both more connected and more separate 🤷‍♂️. Didn’t get any sketching done.

November

• Rest
  • ✘ Weekend away, probably retreat-ish.
  • Repotalot.
• Health
  • ✘ Get back into running. Tis the season! Because the weather’s getting warmer.
• Art
  • ✘ Continue learning to read music.
  • ✘ Play around with the keyboard some more.
  • ✘ Sketch some bridges.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ Focus on Secular Buddhism. What is this?, After Buddhism (and the workbook), Revamp, Buddhism without beliefs, Mindful Solidarity.
  • ✔ Sit with The Way app.
  • ✘ Do a remix of one chapter from Tao Te Ching.
  • ✘ Focus on cultivating clarity in my daily practice.
  • ✘ Set date for next retreat.
  • ✔ Notes on at-home retreats. Applying some Motivate change and Planning the change principles.
  • ✘ Write a page about expansion / contraction, like the tide.
  • ✔ Make a Boddhisattva page.
  • ✔ “Not”. Do a remix of Chapter 11 of Tao Te Ching.
• Work
  • ✔ Mind / Impact map of Supporting, Training, Writing, Presenting, Coding.

November end of month check-in

Hmm! Art did not go so well. Neither did health. Had some life and work stress that kind of knocked me off-kilter. Did some good reading and settling, though. And wrote a fair bit too.

December

Bit of a quiet / unusual month. First week is Rōhatsu. Three weeks of work, then Monday 23rd onward is end of year shutdown.

• Rest
  • Start reading 365 Tao.
  • “Share your good fortune” / “pass it on” spring clean.
• Health
  • A month of zeros.
• Art
  • ✔ Paint some ensō.
  • Sketch some critters.
• Mindfulness
  • ✔ First week, 1st to 8th: Rōhatsu.
  • Finish the year as I started: focus on Zen.
    • Read a few books on the Heart Sutra: Finding the Heart Sutra; The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism; The Other Shore.
  • Write up guidance for a 20m sit and a 20m walk for the next OMB retreat (mid-February).
  • Revisit My (applied) philosophy, stir in some extra ingredients.
  • ✔ Do a remix of a few of my favourite chapters from the Tao Te Ching, using the Le Guin one as a base.
  • ✔ Write up a page: Unfinishableness.
  • Big end of year review. Including review of Rest, Year of Zen, and planning next year.
    • Check back in on previous year reviews too: 2023, 2022.
    • “Shape” of this site. What’s the next iteration?
    • Think about next year’s Theme and whether I want to keep HAM as the outline.
  • Listen to my Tara Brach RAIN playlist (about 2 hours, in 10 or 15 minute sessions), update my Wider RAIN practice page to pre for suggesting an OMB session on it.

Added 2023-12-30, last updated 2024-12-23.