Why do lambs gambol together, run races and leap in the air, from a standstill, for no apparent reason? Why do young rabbits role and tumble and whirl in a ball, in the middle of the road? Why do small birds shake and fluff while standing on the spot building themselves to a frenzy, then issue up unseemly squawking. Why is it that young sentient creatures just can't keep still?
I was driven to Newcastle this afternoon to make my final visit to the Chinese doctor and collect my last weeks worth of medicine. Spring is in the air. Looking out towards Scotland, and in all directions, there is green. There is so much green I can hardly believe my eyes. I'd forgotten what green was or how green green can be! Amazing. Perhaps the grass is singing and shaking along with the birds. Look! There's a hereon fishing in a pond beside the road.
At the mall the interpreter said the doctor said, You're not perfect! I'm happy with that. You want more energy? (As if it's something for sale.) Well no I don't want more energy. I'm fine now thanks. I spread my arms wide to demonstrate how fine and full of energy I am. If I need more energy, I'll rest. We laugh together and get on with chatting about writing web blogs and how I'd written about the good doctors simple advice. Perhaps the interpreter, and manager of the store, is reading this.
Energy is interesting. It's easy to see in the young and it seems they have too much. Energy seems to diminish with age but I'm not so sure of that. Perhaps unlike the tweeting bird or gambolling lambs we have the capacity, now we are full grown, to live in a more dignified way and express a steady vitality, which is no less energetic for all that.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Alive and Well
Many thanks to those who have written asking after my health and general well being. Soon after I returned from Wales a month ago my strength fairly much dissolved in a somewhat alarming way. This coincided with my having to notch up my efforts to meet a deadline. Thankfully I found a knowing Chinese doctor who had me back on my feet very quickly. Last time we met I asked how I might maintain my energy now it had returned. She went on at great length and I listened intently. The interpreter turned to me and said, 'Doctor says, when tired you rest'! I've been doing that and thankfully I can say with confidence that I am both alive and well.
I'm really sorry however to have been silent these past weeks. Just a couple of days ago the documents I've been working on were completed and circulated for consideration. This is not the end of my need to focus on my monastic responsibilities, as I'm bound to do that anyway. However I'd like to get back to writing here again and will do my best to return as often as I can.
The one subject I'd like to write about is the Master/Disciple relationship which is central to the way we pass on the teaching in our tradition. I read an article in Tricycle by Jacob Needleman called Bread and Stone. It's an interesting look at the age-old question of how to recognize an authentic spiritual teacher. Through a conversation with a few of his students the question turned around to how much do you want to find a spiritual teacher. How urgent is your inquiry? Having found a teacher, how intent are you to listen and follow their advice. Zen Master Dogen has lots to say on the subject.
I'm really sorry however to have been silent these past weeks. Just a couple of days ago the documents I've been working on were completed and circulated for consideration. This is not the end of my need to focus on my monastic responsibilities, as I'm bound to do that anyway. However I'd like to get back to writing here again and will do my best to return as often as I can.
The one subject I'd like to write about is the Master/Disciple relationship which is central to the way we pass on the teaching in our tradition. I read an article in Tricycle by Jacob Needleman called Bread and Stone. It's an interesting look at the age-old question of how to recognize an authentic spiritual teacher. Through a conversation with a few of his students the question turned around to how much do you want to find a spiritual teacher. How urgent is your inquiry? Having found a teacher, how intent are you to listen and follow their advice. Zen Master Dogen has lots to say on the subject.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Off Line
In Britain it is 'Mothering Sunday', let's have a thought for mothers everywhere.
I'll be back on line on the 27th March.
I'll be back on line on the 27th March.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Intimate Space
Yesterday I drove north towards Scotland to meet with a blog reader and long time sangha member and his wife and three week old baby. They had driven down from Edinburgh on their first long run in the car with baby aboard. The moment they came to a halt in the car park of Otterburn Mill it was feeding time, again!
Being around a couple getting accustomed to a new little being in their lives is quite touching. The care and tenderness eminating from them spread out all around us as we went about the business of ordering and eating a meal. At one point I was asked if I wanted to hold the baby and I declined saying something like I'm nervous around babies and an upset one is the last thing you want on a long drive. But actually, on reflection, I realize there is such a bond of intimacy between mother and baby, and father too these days, I felt it not quite right to cross over into that space. Can't explain it.
Coming back across the Northumberland moors with drop dead views in all directions I saw lambs scampering about. Spring has reached these parts however not so in the West Allyn Valley. We seem to be a good week behind, no lambs, no daffodils or pink blossom. We have that yet to come.
But I'll be away when the buds burst. For the next couple of weeks I'll be off-line and in Wales. It's a rare opportunity for me to be able to take a complete break from my monastic responsibilities and retreat. Thanks to those who are making this possible.
On route to Wales there will be a couple of nights stay in Harrogate with a day retreat in Leeds on Saturday. I have to carry my laptop with me so I may post tomorrow, or I may not.
Being around a couple getting accustomed to a new little being in their lives is quite touching. The care and tenderness eminating from them spread out all around us as we went about the business of ordering and eating a meal. At one point I was asked if I wanted to hold the baby and I declined saying something like I'm nervous around babies and an upset one is the last thing you want on a long drive. But actually, on reflection, I realize there is such a bond of intimacy between mother and baby, and father too these days, I felt it not quite right to cross over into that space. Can't explain it.
Coming back across the Northumberland moors with drop dead views in all directions I saw lambs scampering about. Spring has reached these parts however not so in the West Allyn Valley. We seem to be a good week behind, no lambs, no daffodils or pink blossom. We have that yet to come.
But I'll be away when the buds burst. For the next couple of weeks I'll be off-line and in Wales. It's a rare opportunity for me to be able to take a complete break from my monastic responsibilities and retreat. Thanks to those who are making this possible.
On route to Wales there will be a couple of nights stay in Harrogate with a day retreat in Leeds on Saturday. I have to carry my laptop with me so I may post tomorrow, or I may not.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Handle with Care
According to a leaked memo from the Fish and Wildlife Service, requests by government scientists for foreign travel "involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice, and/or polar bears" require special handling.
The New Scientist has blogs.
The New Scientist has blogs.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Go Empty Handed
Several people have been in touch recently, via email and in person, who have spoken of pennies dropping. That is by way of a deeper insight into the true nature of existence or being called into what was described as the Great Silence. And with these insights the doors have opened in remarkable, some might say miraculous, ways to going beyond fear, yet not out of pain, and left enveloped in calm.
When the Universe opens up a crack there’s no mistaking this and questioning what one sees is absurd since the gap between observer and observed has been shown as an illusion. What is obvious is simply obvious, where is the need for explanations? To be sure as the moments, hours or days pass the mind definitely wants to make some sense of what has been shown or understood, and tries. However the underlying message is that something has touch where the intellect has no foothold. BTW, we are not talking enlightenment here and at the same time there is nothing that is not enlightened, from the first.
One characteristic of seeing into the nature of how things are is the quiet knowing that words are crude tools in the face of what’s shown or known. Even so it is good to simply write. Quite often I am asked to witness these words, I do not take them lightly or hold them cheap and nor should anybody else, especially the writer. Humility is the watchword of such writings and if that is not present it does not bode well for the onward path.
I’m touched that relative strangers trust enough to speak about their interior, and rightly private, world. This is not stuff to bandy about the Internet, or at least not without a great deal of care.
Out of their Great Compassion the Buddhas and Ancestors have handed down their wisdom and we have the opportunity to learn from them through the sutras, scriptures and writings so easily available now. Collectively know as the Dharma. Their words point the way however we must go on alone, with empty hands.
When the Universe opens up a crack there’s no mistaking this and questioning what one sees is absurd since the gap between observer and observed has been shown as an illusion. What is obvious is simply obvious, where is the need for explanations? To be sure as the moments, hours or days pass the mind definitely wants to make some sense of what has been shown or understood, and tries. However the underlying message is that something has touch where the intellect has no foothold. BTW, we are not talking enlightenment here and at the same time there is nothing that is not enlightened, from the first.
One characteristic of seeing into the nature of how things are is the quiet knowing that words are crude tools in the face of what’s shown or known. Even so it is good to simply write. Quite often I am asked to witness these words, I do not take them lightly or hold them cheap and nor should anybody else, especially the writer. Humility is the watchword of such writings and if that is not present it does not bode well for the onward path.
I’m touched that relative strangers trust enough to speak about their interior, and rightly private, world. This is not stuff to bandy about the Internet, or at least not without a great deal of care.
Out of their Great Compassion the Buddhas and Ancestors have handed down their wisdom and we have the opportunity to learn from them through the sutras, scriptures and writings so easily available now. Collectively know as the Dharma. Their words point the way however we must go on alone, with empty hands.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Access to Tools
Tools foster conviviality to the extent to which they can be easily used, by anybody, as often or as seldom as desired, for the accomplishment of a purpose chosen by the user. The use of such tools by one person does not restrain another from using them equally. They do not require previous certification of the user. Their existence does not impose any obligation to use them. They allow the user to express his meaning in action. Tools for Conviviality - Ivan Illich
I wonder what Ivan Illich would have made of the Internet. In the early 1970's I drank in his Deschooling Society and later Energy and Equity. For some reason his name came to mind this evening as I sat on my bed after meditation, so I Googled his name and was pleased, and amazed, to find the full text of his books online. Wonderful!
There's a movement to get people in remote areas of the world hooked up to the Internet and it's not all commercially driven either. Rural Wales, Africa, India and Nepal. I wrote an email to Dave Hughes, who has been the moving hand behind many projects around the world, wondering if he had some ideas on how to get the West Allyn Valley hooked up to Broadband. In the end I decided not to send it. There has to be more deserving cases in the world than us.
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