Having a great week, playing music (trying out my new amplifier!), visiting with relatives from California, making a beadwork gift-card for a friend who's sick, learning better how to deal with stress and uniify with my radiant and eternal Inner Being, instead of identifying with my illusion-bound human toddler-self!

What a gorgeous day! My life is so full, thanks to the serendipitous fact of having moved to the street music capital of the country, Cambridge, MA many years ago, and becoming a street performer. I love playing music in the street and subway (parks and plazas, too!), and I also love working as a street performance monitor for the Arts Council. This afternoon I monitored in Harvard Square for 6.5 hours, and then tonight I came back to the Square after dinner and played a couple hours of jazz. It was just a perfect day. I feel blessed by so much wonderful music and so many wonderful and talented friends.

More on the Golden Flower Technique and meditation in general: I remembered (after writing the most recent post) that the Golden Flower ('circulation of the Light') meditation of Lu Dongbin starts out with orienting one's visual focus on the tip of the nose, but once the breath is settled and calm, you revert to placing your consciousness and your focus on the point between your eyebrows. Voila!

Interesting development: I'm finding, to my surprise, that meditating with focus on the 3rd eye, combined with the 'hong so' mantra is much more effective for me (produces an almost instant calm and ability to filter out thoughts), compared to meditating with focus on the tip of the nose with eyes slightly open, as taught in 'the Golden Flower Technique,' etc.