Great, John. A few thoughts. Last night when I woke up to practice it was so bright because of the moon that I was able to walk downstairs without using any light but what came through the windows. Some nights, even when the moon isn't out, the stars are still bright enough. When you wake up, allow a few moments for your eyes to get accustomed to whatever light is available. If you find that you need some, keep it minimal. Putting a flashlight or a candle beside your bed is a good option. Then you can decide whether to

(1) Practice in bed without actually rising.

(2) Get out of bed to meditate, walk, chant, talk quietly out loud, or read.

If you decide on (1), you can recite a mantra, an affirmation, or some other verbal or sub-verbal form of practice. You can also follow your breath or engage in any other Buddhist practice that can be done without rising. Don't worry that you might fall back to sleep. If this happens in the beginning, that is fine.

If you decide on (2), take whatever light you need. I've learned to take a flashlight if I go out walking in Nature, even though I rarely use it. When I go downstairs to practice, I use whatever light I need, depending on what I have in mind, but unless it involves attempting a "Green Reading" of a particular scripture, usually I do without. Even then, I use lighting only as necessary. I might, for instance, read a few lines of a sutra and then turn out the lamp to meditate on them.

Later in the retreat I will be talking a bit more about this space that opens up naturally in the night, once we have decided to allow room for it. One very valuable practice is self-examination, sometimes also called "personal inventory" or "examination of conscience." In the popular culture the hours of Green Meditation are sometimes referred to as "the hour of the wolf," because this is the time when anxieties, health or financial worries, and other personal problems often come to the fore. These are the thoughts or issues we often avoid during the daylight hours. But they surface in our dreams or when we wake during the night. Green Meditation involves a daily rhythm of spiritual work, and that work often involves the real gritty stuff of our lives. I sometimes talk aloud about issues or problems that cannot be solved by daylight because their roots are so deep. Sometimes I do this while walking in Nature (I call this "Telling It to the Stars"), and sometimes just by speaking into the dark. Invariably I find some inspiration from doing this and always wake in the morning with a renewed sense of courage or resolve. These follow me through the day like that little circle of darkness inside of the light (yang) side of the yin-yang symbol. It serves as a kind of advisor for the activities of the day.

Lately I have been studying the Mandukya Upanishad, the 12 verses of which are among the most important in the Hindu canon. It offers the foundational teaching on the AUM (OM) Mantra which can either be repeated on its own or as the opening syllable of most Buddhist mantras. If you look it up on-line, you'll see that this particular Upanishad contains a significant artifact where Green Meditation is concerned. My practice while trying to recover the Green Dharma from this particular Upanishad--which, incidentally, stands right on the borderline between Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism--has been to recite OM once with every breath, 108 times in all. I use a Buddhist mala for this, and it takes me about 30 minutes, repeated as time allows. I can do this in the dark, either sitting up or lying down.

A long response, I know...but I thought others might have the same question you asked. Thanks for joining the retreat.

You're right, pw. That's really the point of entry for most of us--just becoming aware of our relationship to artificial lighting and how it affects our consciousness. In technologically developed nations, pretty much everyone begins Green Meditation from there. I gave an introductory talk last night in Woodstock (I'll try to get it up on YouTube in a couple of days) where I suggested the practice of just putting our awareness in our "switch finger" for a day or two, noticing when we use it to turn the lights on or off.

Thanks for joining the retreat, Mark. The suggestions were only "roughed out" in the magazine because I wanted to allow people practicing on their own, or those living together in practice centers, the freedom to adapt Green Meditation as necessary to fit their situation. Here, where I can answer questions and offer direct feedback and support, I'm going into a lot more detail about the practice.

What you wrote is actually quite significant, so I hope you don't mind me elaborating on it a bit. You say:

I was inspired to move a struggling sitting practice to the moment of dusk and a place in the corner by the window.

This is exactly what happens in Green Meditation. Green Meditation is all about context. We can't point to a particular practice and say this, and only this, is Green Meditation. The truth seems to be that all spiritual practices are an effort to preserve or to recover Green Meditation. Over the years I have used everything from the Catholic rosary to zazen in my Green Meditation practice, and in each case my experience was basically the same. Once that practice had recovered its Green context, every aspect of it began to fall into place.

When you "move a stuggling sitting practice to the moment of dusk and place it in the corner by the window," you are recovering the original context for sitting practice. Naturally, once you have done this, it begins to feel better, or simply more coherent. Basically, in doing so you have set your practice in relationship to Nature. Nature is the point of origin and point of contact for any real spiritual practice. That's why the Buddha touched it when Mara challenged his enlightenment. Nature supports our spiritual efforts in exactly the same way that it supports our lives. Moving your sitting practice to the time of dusk and the place in the corner by the window is your way of doing what the Buddha did: touching the Earth.

Regarding the download explaining one theory for the origin of the Yin-Yang symbol. The PDF was originally written as an HTML doc, so the link seems to have disappeared. You'll find it here: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/YinYang.htm

Thank you for posting, Runningstream. Many saints and sages through the ages have meditated lying down, either from choice, like Francis of Assisi, or because they had no choice in the matter. At one point or another, however, none of us has a choice but to meditate lying down, as Shakyamuni did. At such times, we can hardly regard lying down as second best. The following image depicts the Buddha in "parinirvana" pose.

Moreover, lying down is a good position from which to observe the coming and going of light. Our bodies naturally want to assume that position at dusk, for instance. Even Nature imitates the meditative aspect of that transitional moment. The sun sinks to the level of the horizon, its light spreading out all along it. This is followed by the afterglow, which likewise lies flat along its length. There comes a moment when the afterglow ceases (though for the most part this is perceptible only after it has happened, or perhaps with the appearance of the first stars). This makes an excellent meditation in itself and has a long history in Buddhism. It can be used as a visualization for making the transition into sleep.

Doing this practice for some time, we can even come to a place where we experience its opposite before fully coming awake in the morning: A faint line of light appears along the edge of the horizon, gradually spreading and rising along its length until eventually the sun peeks over its edge. You can sometimes experience this while you are still asleep, as your consciousness becomes more and more attuned to the deeper, more universal rhythms of Nature.

In any case, I am happy that this retreat has something to offer you. Please feel free to let us know what you discover.

Good luck to you, Runningstream. I feel certain that you will continue to find the darkness a healing experience on many levels. It sounds like you have a bit of a calling for it, and that is usually a very good sign where Green Meditation is concerned. Please feel free to share further experiences as you go along, during or after the retreat. Two of our group members in Woodstock are about to set up pages on Facebook (actually that one is already up but isn't developed yet) and on Tricycle Community for further dialogue, teaching, and trouble-shooting. I'll be on those pages regurlarly as well.

Thanks, Mark. I noticed the technical snafu as well and let Tricycle know. The problem seems to have been fixed now, so if you don't mind, I'll copy your question into the discussion forum for Week Two and answer it there at some length.