{"id":685,"date":"2014-09-13T05:32:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T05:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=685"},"modified":"2014-09-13T05:32:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T05:32:53","slug":"r-is-for-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=685","title":{"rendered":"R is for Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Liberation Serif\",\"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"FreeSans\"; font-size: 12pt; }\n--><\/style>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Liberation Serif\",\"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"FreeSans\"; font-size: 12pt; }\n--><\/style>\n<p>Following on from my recent post about questions and their value in our spiritual lives, I&#8217;ve been thinking about rules.<\/p>\n<p>Rules can also be a useful tool in progressing in the spiritual life. I&#8217;m not thinking of rules imposed by outside agencies, but ones that we develop for ourselves (though we may choose to discuss what they might be with a group of people we trust).<\/p>\n<p>Our spiritual lives need discipline to progress, just like an athlete or musician needs discipline to practice regularly; a student needs discipline to study consistently and to submit essays on time; a gardener needs discipline to dig and to sow and then to wait for the fruit and flowers in due course.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/apples.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-679 aligncenter\" alt=\"apples\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/apples-300x130.jpg\" width=\"668\" height=\"306\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So what rules am I imposing on myself at present?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To remember to walk mindfully<\/p>\n<p>To have some quiet time every day \u2013 ideally meeting for worship or sitting meditation, but it might be a mindful activity<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Liberation Serif\",\"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"FreeSans\"; font-size: 12pt; }\n--><\/style>\n<p>No more than 15 minutes sitting meditation at one time (there are times when I could just go on sitting for an hour or more and it&#8217;s a temptation I feel I need to resist)<\/p>\n<p>No more than an hour sat at the computer (at any one time)<\/p>\n<p>Some practical, hands on, activity everyday (eg food preparation, washing up, gardening, knitting, cleaning \u2013 depending on what needs to be done and my physical ability that day)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/allotment.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-678\" alt=\"allotment\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/allotment-300x104.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"202\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Write a blog post every week<\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\nP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); }P.western { font-family: \"Liberation Serif\",\"Times New Roman\",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-family: \"Droid Sans\"; font-size: 12pt; }P.ctl { font-family: \"FreeSans\"; font-size: 12pt; }\n--><\/style>\n<p>Go to sangha meetings once a month<\/p>\n<p>To be gentle with myself \u2013 if in doubt, rest<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What rule might be helpful to you?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following on from my recent post about questions and their value in our spiritual lives, I&#8217;ve been thinking about rules. Rules can also be a useful tool in progressing in the spiritual life. I&#8217;m not thinking of rules imposed by &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=685\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}