Up ahead in a couple of hours, there will be some time to spend in the zendo I did not adequately insulate when I built it.
As a result, I will dress myself plump as the insufferably cute Pillsbury doughboy and pay my penalties for an hour or so.
Oh well, freezing my ass off beats some swooning and wise discussion of 'karma.'
Feel like you shoulda taken up Tibetan Tummo practice? Do ya?
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I was fascinated by the story of Milarepa and how he developed the ability to withstand the cold. I thought it was a Tibetan fantasy. Then several yearsa ago I bought a DVD showing that the practice actually works. Essentially it showed some of that's now on Wilkipedia --
"A 1982 study of the physiological effects of Tummo has been made by Benson and colleagues, who studied Indo-Tibetan Yogis in the Himalayas and in India in the 1980s. Conducted in Upper Dharamsala in India, it found that the subjects, three monks, exhibited the capacity to increase the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 8.3 °C. In a 2002 experiment reported by the Harvard Gazette, conducted in Normandy, France, two monks from the Buddhist tradition wore sensors that recorded changes in heat production and metabolism. A 2013 study by Kozhevnikov and colleagues showed increases in core body temperature in both expert meditators from eastern Tibet and Western non-meditators."
But don't feel bad; I've seen a couple of 20+ year American Zen monks whining when the temperature in the zendo drops to 67 degrees.
Suggestion: Get a nice space heater even if you have to run another electrical line out to the zendo. Unless you actually like looking like the Michelin Man
MW -- At the monastery I flunked out of, I could sit, lightly clothed, in temps around the zero mark. It was when I stood up for kinhin that I began to shake like half-cured Jell-O.
ReplyDeleteNow I am old and lazy and am willing to marvel at others' marvels and dress like the Michelin Tire Man.
Impressive!
ReplyDeleteCan you still withstand the cold while seated?
Still, I think you should get a heater into the zendo. Can't you get one of those 100 foot orange extension cords at the Home Depot?
That and the heater have to be well under $100, no/
MW -- I have a plug-in radiator. My problem is that I did a half-baked job of insulating the place so the effect is ... not all it might be.
ReplyDelete