greetings
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:27 pm
hi friends!
my name is Andy but i go by "ushi" (japanese for "ox"; think Year of the Ox, strong as an ox, the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, etc. the ox is a noble animal!). i am from western Colorado in the USA, right on the border between the mountains and the desert. i work in a public library and have been practicing Buddhism for around ten years, since i was in college.
my initial training was in the vipassana style taught by S.N. Goenka, and i dove deeply into the intellectual side of buddhism, where i collected a large number of books and did very little in terms of actual practice. in the last year or so i have re-oriented myself to become a dedicated meditator. i now practice concentration meditation focusing on the breath and sit for between 30 and 60 minutes a day.
in my rural community there are not many buddhists. i have been extremely fortunate to find a Rinzai zen sangha with a teacher here, so i sit with them regularly. my teacher is wonderful and supports me in continuing my concentration meditation and theravada practice even while sitting regularly with them. because of that, i also practice zazen (though i'm not sure zazen and concentration meditation have to be all that different... that might be another post for another time!) and am interested in mahayana buddhism as well.
anyway, enough about me, i look forward to learning from your collective wisdom! thank you.
my name is Andy but i go by "ushi" (japanese for "ox"; think Year of the Ox, strong as an ox, the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, etc. the ox is a noble animal!). i am from western Colorado in the USA, right on the border between the mountains and the desert. i work in a public library and have been practicing Buddhism for around ten years, since i was in college.
my initial training was in the vipassana style taught by S.N. Goenka, and i dove deeply into the intellectual side of buddhism, where i collected a large number of books and did very little in terms of actual practice. in the last year or so i have re-oriented myself to become a dedicated meditator. i now practice concentration meditation focusing on the breath and sit for between 30 and 60 minutes a day.
in my rural community there are not many buddhists. i have been extremely fortunate to find a Rinzai zen sangha with a teacher here, so i sit with them regularly. my teacher is wonderful and supports me in continuing my concentration meditation and theravada practice even while sitting regularly with them. because of that, i also practice zazen (though i'm not sure zazen and concentration meditation have to be all that different... that might be another post for another time!) and am interested in mahayana buddhism as well.
anyway, enough about me, i look forward to learning from your collective wisdom! thank you.