Recipe: A Good Morning
On twitter, tirayk said, “Hey! I’m lovin the recipes! Keep’ em comin!”
So, here ya go:A Good Morning
Ingredients-
- Programmable Alarm Clock
- Prayer Beads
- Exercise Space
- Wife
- Meditation Cushion
- A Good Book
- Coffee
For the Programmable Alarm Clock I use my iPhone. I set three alarms, each to go off at 5 minute intervals. I use the Bell Tower, Robot, and Marimba sounds, in that order. After experimentation I’ve found that I cannot be trusted with a snooze function, so setting three consecutive alarms gives me a much better chance of getting up something like on time.
I set my alarm for 90 minutes before I have to leave the house, or get Daisy (the Wife) out the door, to give me ample time for the rest of the recipe.
Once I actually rise I pray on a mandala of Prayer Beads for 10 rounds. There are 108 beads, so that’s 1,080 prayers. Takes about 6 minutes. The prayer is just a mental repetition of the name of God (for me that’s Ramanama.) I let this be an expression of gratitude for being.
Then it’s time for exercises. At this point I usually give Daisy a pat to let her know that the waking up ritual is beginning. A little warning goes a long way for ease-making later.
My Exercise Space is just a 3′ x 3′ space in the living room that is kept clear. My exercises ar as follows -
- A set of 40 Penguin Flaps
- A set of 40 forward arm raises
- A set of 30 torso twists
- Another set of 40 Penguin Flaps
- 60 Hindu Squats
- 100 hand grips
What the heck is a Penguin Flap, and what in Buddha’s name is a Hindu Squat?!? Well, I’ll tell ya in another post. 
I do this routine and then another pat to Daisy to let her know I am meditating, at which point I hit the Meditation Cushion. I set the timer on my iPhone (an app called Meditator by SimpleTouch) for 32 minutes. I have three alerts set. The first is at 2 minutes. That is the time I give myself to settle in on the cushion. Once I here the Tibetan monk drone out an, “Ooooommmmmm…” it’s time to get focused. My main practice these days is insight style, which means noting everything that happens as it happens. At 29 minutes after the first alert a bell sounds to let me know I’m almost done. Then the final bell and I bow and get up for three prostrations to the Buddha.
Then I get Daisy out of bed and on her way to her day with two good cups of Coffee and some breakfast (usually cold cereal with yogurt and fruit, or Cream ‘o Wheat with fruit.) I get my beans from Rodger’s Coffee & Tea, just down the street.
Finally a bit of reading from whichever of the several Good Books, I am currently working through.
This dish works best served warm.
