It has only been a few weeks into my last semester at school, and I’ve gained so much from my online Intro to Zen Meditation course. The other day, we reviewed the first couple of chapters from The Essentials of Buddhist Meditation by Śramaņa Zhiyi (Chih-i) (Link to PDF). One chapter that spoke to me was Chapter 3: Elimination of the Hindrances.

Hindrances, what a good word to describe the setbacks that keep me from being the person I’d rather be throughout each day. More hours than not, I am utterly exhausted. This has held me back from excelling in school, being sociable, and has led me to make poor financial decisions.

My solution over the last three to four weeks has been replacement. One of the simple ones has been that I’m actively replacing time in front of the screen with time in front of the stove. Hence, the muffins and scones. Side note, when I write down “replacement”, I think of it geologically. In sedimentary rocks, replacement is when one mineral precipitates out and another one forms. Also, my professor often tells us we are rocks when we meditate.

So in short, I’m a hindered rock, but in spite of that, I made some incredible white chocolate & cranberry scones https://www.sugarsaltmagic.com/cranberry-white-chocolate-scones/.