Andy's Mind

Because I’m in Warsaw for three days I dropped into the Kannon’s zendo this morning. Instead of the normal morning practice it was an end of a two-day sesshin and I joined them for the last three rounds of zazen separated by kinhin. Very interesting experience, after almost half a year of sitting alone it was very encouraging. However, the most surprising thing was how short the 45 minutes periods of zazen felt. I remember waiting for the bell to sound a year ago – now I was almost disappointed when it did, even though it was not an easy sitting (I was drowning in thoughts too frequently). I’ll have to make an effort and come there again when I’ll be in Warsaw.

I had an interesting experience today. My new headphones have just arrived and, having them unpacked and connected to my PowerBook, I settled down to enjoy the experience of my favorite tunes in high quality. I reached for a mug of tea to make my indulgence complete and… I spilled about half of it all over the table and onto my bellowed PowerBook. (more…)

Last week whole Poland slowed down for the annunal „long weekend“ caused by two public holidays – on 1st and 3rd of May. Most people took a day off – or three – and went away from the cities. The streets were empty – except for the Cracow’s old town where the usual flood of tourists fills up the streets. (more…)

Cracow is becoming more and more crowded on weekends, clear sign that the tourist season has started. As I walked today through these crowds filling up the streets of the old town I looked at people’s faces. I tried to focus on one for a few seconds then moved on to another. Each was different yet all had one thing in common – they were all alien, unknown, just glimpses of other lives and stories I will never know.

Walking like this I realised… in this whole whirl I’m in I long for one thing – serenity.