Subway knitting... has been on hold...

The Wave Stole has been temporarily stalled. I haven't worked on it for about two months. It's because I've wanted to do some reading. I will pick up the stole again after the holidays. It will be one of my resolutions. There will be two resolutions this year, I'll divulge the other one next week. ;)

Here is how far I got with edging the stole:

Reading. It started with Shambala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa. I've had the book for several years. I tried reading it back when I was taking piano lessons from a teacher who happened to be a Shambala Bhuddist. It didn't work for me at the time. I picked it up 2 or 3 different times over the course of a few years but never got anywhere with it. So it has sat on the shelf for the past 5 years. Somehow I picked it up again 'round about October and it clicked--I finished it. It was good, but I can't say I'm quite ready for this school. It did, however, point me to the Eastern philosophy section at the bookstore where I picked up a few books by Thich Nhat Hanh.

I came home with Being Peace, and Touching Peace. I really liked them a lot so I went back and picked up Understanding the Mind. Understanding the Mind is not such an easy read but it's worth getting through. I'm almost finished with it. At the moment, my reading list is comprised entirely of Thich Nhat Hanh. In waiting are:

Our Appointment with Life
Walking Meditation
Creating True Peace
Living Buddha, Living Christ

I'm looking forward to them all, so subway knitting will be on hold a little longer.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk who currently lives in Plum Village, a meditation center he founded in France. I hope you'll consider picking up a few of his books. Well worth it.

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism... Mahayana is one of the two main Buddhist traditions, the other being Theravada Buddhism. The main difference between them is that Mahayana (meaning "Greater Vehicle") is geared towards a general population, whereas Theravada is geared towards monastic life... The difference is very beautifully and lovingly explained in this video. It's a whole hour long, but it will be an hour well spent. The monk is Lama Choedak Rinpoche. Stay with him at least 20 minutes as he warms up and he is truly charming and delightful...