Schedule Part I

Someone asked how I spend my day. I see it as mainly working but it goes like this:
Rise when I awaken.
Shower - mainly just cold.
Hot water and lime (Bali jeruk nipis - little round limes)
Walking meditation - any length I want or set a timer to anything I want.
Sitting meditation - begins with

       May all beings be happy
       May all beings be healthy
       May all beings be free from harm
       May all beings love life
       May all beings awaken
 ("May all beings be happy" is poplar with some of the circles I'm in and if I'm saying just that I       interpret "happy" as to awaken or to mean a supreme happiness)
       Then I list all those wished to be happy/awaken graduating to all beings in the universe and beyond
       next I go down the chakras
       next scan the body
       next just follow the breath and if pre-occupied start off counting, moving to Thank You (you not standing for any object) if distracted, dropping all that and sitting till I stop or till timer goes off.
Do a few movements while sitting I picked up from Merta Ada here in Bali which ends with bowing to floor on shins from sitting. That helps me to stand.

When I was a kid, kids would ask if you had one wish and that wish could not be to wish for more wishes, what would it be? I'd always say, "I'd wish for everyone everywhere to be happy forever" and I couldn't understand why anyone would wish for anything else. Later Buddhism reminded me to use "all beings" to clarify that animals and all life were included and expanded the meaning of happy. I'd cared desperately for animals as a kid but hadn't gotten to the "all beings" approach. And Buddhism was great because my childhood wish which I'd never thought could really be applied in an effective way, was at the core. I'd been raised with non theistic faith healing, precursor to the New Age, but hadn't applied it wide enough. Mahayana Buddhism that I got into was based on the ultimate wish. We called it a vow, the Bodhisattva's Vow. But in Theravada Buddhism and Hinduism I've run into the same thing in different ways such as, "May all beings be happy."

So if this is what we vow and what I'd wished from as far back as I can remember, why do we keep repeating it over and over day after day? I'd say that's because it's not natural, or how about, because the tendency to care only about ourselves is strong and so we reinforce the vow ad infinitude.

That's the way the day's schedule begins every day. If something's up and gotta tend to it, I'll abbreviate the morning rites as necessary. I think if there were a fire and had to jump out of bed and run outside naked, I'd recite "May all beings be happy" and "Thank you" on my way out. Really.