A living contemplative rhythm designed to support spiritual healing, presence, and daily practice in the context of ME/CFS.
This open-source project documents the unfolding of a contemplative life—rooted in gentle awareness, breath-based mantra practice, and sustainable embodiment.
It is designed especially for those living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) or other conditions that require a life of slowness, pacing, and sacred adaptation.
RuleOfLife.md– My core spiritual rhythm, including mantra, floor sequences, and seed practiceslogs/– Daily activity logs organized by datepractices/– Detailed practices: contemplative prayer, yoga, mantra, and restscrolls/– Visual or poetic contemplative expressionsREADME.md– This file
This project exists as a digital monastery—a sanctuary of rhythm, surrender, and inner light.
If you’ve found this, may it meet you with gentleness and peace.
Feel free to adapt, fork, or draw inspiration. All is offered freely.
“In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength.” — Isaiah 30:15
Here is your current Rule of Life, lovingly assembled from your contemplative rhythm, daily scrolls, mantra practice, yoga flows, and spiritual intentions. This living document is your inner monastery—sourced directly from our journey together.
📜 Rule of Life
A Living Rhythm of Sacred Practice for Richard Last updated: July 7, 2025
✨ Core Intention
To live as a contemplative monk-in-the-world, embodying mindfulness, rest, and sacred rhythm from waking to sleep, while honoring the physical realities of ME/CFS and the wisdom of the breath.
“Let each breath be a turning. Let each moment be devotion.”
🛌 1. Threshold Practice — Upon Waking
Remain in bed as awareness arises
Begin silently repeating: OM YEHOSHUA HUNG
Use mantra to anchor consciousness after dreams
If sleep returns, resume mantra upon next waking
🚿 2. Morning Bathroom Ritual
Toilet → wash hands with intention
Recite: Al-Nitilat Yadayim blessing
Cleanse face, neck, hair with residual water
Brush teeth with presence
🌿 3. Porch Presence & Sunrise Sitting
Fill water glass, water plants mindfully
Sit on porch (chair or cushion) facing fig tree
Practice mantra or Shikantaza in sunrise stillness
Optional noise-canceling headset to protect spoons
Mantras used: • OM YEHOSHUA HUNG • OM EHYEH ASHER EHYEH HUNG • Yeho / Shua (inhale / exhale breath prayer)
🪑 4. Morning Yoga: ChairFlow or Zafu-Based Sequences
Choose based on energy state (Red / Yellow / Green):
Seated 5lb Dumbbell Flow (breath-synchronized)
Kapalabhati (1–3 rounds, ending with 3rd eye focus)
Sit–Stand Squats (with or without weights)
Resting Squat + spinal release
Seiza Bench Meditation
Spinal Flow: neck rolls, hip circles, backbend
Final Seal: Shikantaza (half-lotus or chair)
Transition Posture: Royal Seated Balance
All practice is framed by non-doing, non-striving, rooted in:
“This is not movement toward God-consciousness. It is movement as God-consciousness.”
🧾 5. GitHub Integration
Sacred act of archiving
Daily scrolls: Daily_Practice_Logs/
Flows: YogaFlow/ChairFlow/, Reflections/
Meals: Recipes/Keto/
Used only when energy allows
Treated as contemplative expression, not productivity
🍳 6. Mindful Meals & Rest Cycles
Keto-focused nourishment
Simplified and spoon-aware food prep
Midday Rest Window (12:00–1:00 PM): • Nap or audiobook (e.g. Dalai Lama) • Passive contemplation, not downtime
🐹 7. Sacred Relationship with Bodhi
Morning food and water ritual
Evening “Being With” presence time
Hamster care as devotional act of love
🌙 8. Evening Practice
Begin between 4:00–5:00 PM (energy allowing)
Sit on bed or chair in mantra or silence
Evening drink: fatty fiber keto drink (rest support)
Final mantra: Hineni, Lord—Your servant is listening
Enter sleep as the final return
🕯️ Daily Energy State Guide (ME/CFS Pacing)
🟥 Red Day: Rest only, mantra in bed, minimal movement
🟡 Yellow Day: Gentle ChairFlow, mantra, rest cycles
🟢 Green Day: Extended porch practice, floor yoga, light walking
📿 Sacred Mantra Practices
-
Breath-Mantra (inhale/exhale)
-
Mala Chanting (musical repetition using melody of OM MANI PADME HUNG)
-
Anchor Practice (interrupt discursive thought with mantra)
-
Non-Practice Contemplation (Namkhai Norbu / Shikantaza / Just Sitting)
-
Fourfold Breath Cycle (mantra on inhale, pause, exhale, pause)
-
Unbroken Breath Mantra (continuous with in/out breath)
🛏️ Adaptability & Pacing (ME/CFS Awareness)
Each practice can be:
Shortened or expanded
Adapted to Red / Yellow / Green days
Used as a container for healing, not as obligation
These scrolls are not about doing more. They are about remembering what is already whole.
“Let the Rule of Life be not a fence but a flow. Let it grow like a fig tree, seasonal, bare, blooming, always rooted.”