{"id":397,"date":"2011-11-14T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T23:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/?p=397"},"modified":"2011-11-14T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T23:40:16","slug":"practice-period-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"Practice period wrap-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zenjones.canyonlink.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/90061079.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-401\" title=\"90061079\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/90061079-206x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/90061079-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/90061079.jpg 342w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a>Practice period is over.<\/p>\n<p>What have I learned? What was the value?<\/p>\n<p>First: the gratitude practice was most helpful. I have added in the weekly &#8220;gratitude day,&#8221; and the nightly reflection has been second nature lately. It was something I&#8217;d tried to do for years; I&#8217;m grateful it worked this time.<\/p>\n<p>The weekly pattern interrupts were most enlightening. I had to struggle with staying with the experience most of the time. I missed my comforts\u2014and was able to see how much of my actions were seeking comfort.<\/p>\n<p>I also saw how I used anger as a defense\u2014I was so cranky, so easily annoyed. Especially during the week when I gave up my reading habit.<\/p>\n<p>One effect of practice period is in the intensification of my usual daily practice. For example, today is Loving Kindness Meditation Day and while it is only 10 am I have noticed already three times my propensity for separation\u2014heard that little voice say &#8220;not me&#8221;\u2014and have breathed into the center of the chest, and thought &#8220;May you dwell in the open heart.&#8221; Usually I do the meditation in the morning and forget about it. But I believe practice period has brought practice nearer the surface.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Practice period is over. What have I learned? What was the value? First: the gratitude practice was most helpful. I have added in the weekly &#8220;gratitude day,&#8221; and the nightly reflection has been second nature lately. It was something I&#8217;d tried to do for years; I&#8217;m grateful it worked this time. The weekly pattern interrupts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratitude","category-practice-period"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenjones.bravoecho.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}