This letter is published with the authors permission.
Dear Rev. Mugo,
Re your comment that one needs to “trust that doing nothing is worthwhile.”
This reminded me that when I was at the Forbidden City in Beijing, our guide pointed out a Buddhist inscription over a doorway that translated as “Do Nothing.” I was stunned: in the middle of this vast monument to ambition and activity, a reminder not to strive but just to be.
Here’s a thought: one’s “old stuff” is one’s personal Forbidden City, a seemingly indestructible monument built of ambition, craving, negative thought, etc. Somewhere in the middle of it is the doorway of “Do Nothing.”
Today, two e-mails from friends in Singapore, and one from somebody who who will be there by mid-April or May, prompted me to publish some photographs taken in June last year. I was on the last leg of a two month pilgrimage to East Asia. You can find photographs and travelogue in the April, May and June entries of this blog. Unfortunately I did not post as many pictures of Malaysia and Singapore as I’d have wanted, after all I was on my last leg(s)! “How are they”? my friends ask to-day, “Much the same, I’m afraid” is the answer. (I’ve a tendency towards swollen legs.)
Mr. Lee Coo the architect of Kong Meng San temple (Bright Hill Temple), Singapore.
I knew we were going to visit a temple however Cindy, the days driver, and Mr. Coo had conspired to give me a surprise. We were driving towards a residential block not a temple. My mind was going a mile a minute as we entered a lift, “Is this abduction then”? I asked myself all the while knowing in my heart it couldn’t be. Emerging from the lift this is the view we found. “What does it look like”? he asked, “A ship”. The ship of the Dharma, a Buddhist Temple. There is so much to say about Bright Hill Temple and Mr. Coo and his incredible kindness, and Cindy’s too, however that will have to be another day. I’ll pause just a moment to mention that there are four floors, one for each of the Four Noble Truths. And what happens on each floor corresponds to each Truth.
Lee and I on the forth floor of Kong Meng San Temple (Bright Hill Temple).
This picture is for Jessie to thank her for her personal support and for all those who made my stay in Singapore possible. I hope we will meet again.
There is a link in ‘More Links’, over on the left of this writing, to a site called Blogmundu, a round up of Buddhist Blogs on the internet. This week MovingMountains has a mention in Blog Harvest with kinds words to say; received with bows.
I smile and am slightly shocked because Tom, the editor, speaks of the ‘calming and kind quality of the posts’. It’s the kind of shock I had last week when somebody referred to me as ‘tinny’ which is not how I think of myself, although just five foot three! That view, from the outside, does not match with my view from the inside.
That same inner ‘shock’, comes up for me when I see attention drawn to assessments of ones placing on the path of practice. In the relative world these self evaluations are rarely matched by the view from the outside, and perhaps this is just as it needs to be. Err, just as long as compassion for oneself is in place.
Yesterday Gareth of Green Clouds posted ponderings on issues surrounding being nomination for Blogisattva Awards. Yes, they’re kinda fun awards and at the same time the recognition of ones on line offerings by ones peers has a real place, a deep one I feel. Let’s see now; there’s encouragement to keep going, a natural arising opportunity to honestly look at ones motivations and a call to check-in with the Three Pure Precepts. They translate as: ceasing from doing harm, doing the right thing and being ‘good’ for others, all admirable intentions one aspires to live up to.
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, forever cleaning! Cleaning is and has been very much part of the practice in the Way within the Zen tradition (the only one I know anything about). Cleaning the meditation room and then the rest of the house in readiness for a half-day retreat is before me today. It is nearly midday and I’ve not started yet. There always seems to be something more important than getting out the vacuum cleaner and duster. After all, everything is clean enough!
Sometimes that ‘something more important’ really IS more important, you just didn’t know why at the time! You know the kind of thing, you inexplicably turn right rather than left taking the longer route home (to start cleaning) and you meet an old friend. One time I was traveling through London transferring from one station to another and bumped into a friend I’d known in India. We had lost touch over time. What a coincidence! Or was it the winds of the Buddha’s benevolent influence that had us outside Victoria train station at the same time, and notice each other. Nothing spooky or fatalistic I assure you just something to do with how life throws up karmic cleaning opportunities: when all conditions are ripe.
Chance encounters such as the one in London are breath taking in the width and depth of what takes place in just a brief encounter, they can be life changing. One meets the deep heart of the old friend and, while knowing love remains, part lighter and brighter accepting that life paths have diverged. Some speck of glue in ones being has dissolved and walking on into ones life, in ways seemingly unconnected with the encounter itself, become obvious and non ‘sticky’. The way is cleared simply because the flow of cause and effect had one in the right place at the right time, you turned right rather than left on the way home. If I remember correctly, it was so long ago, the friend and I had a meal and then I caught a latter train home. So often meals and the like can act as cement and sometimes they can be as water carrying one on freed, unencumbered by the past.
We have a verse that can be recited while washing ones hands: “I wish to cleanse my body and my heart”. There it is, intention together with action, a great reminder in the rush of the day.
Now, having got that whole thing out of my mind and onto paper, onward to the vacuum cleaner.
A couple of days ago I mentioned something about a cat shown in a painting of the Buddha’s Parinirvana. Thankfully I have a monastic colleague who is well read and sent references.
This is probably not a cat. It was found in the corner of a painting sent along with the information below and thought it worth an airing anyway.
Rev. Mugo, Here are a couple of references to the cat in the depictions of the Buddha’s Parinirvana. See the book “Zen & Japanese Culture” by D.T. Suzuki for a story about a monk called Cho Densu (1352-1431) who was commissioned to paint the Buddha’s PariNirvana for the Tofukuji Zen monastery at Kyoto (39 by 26 feet). The story goes that a cat would watch him paint the picture. Any way the artist wanted ultramarine in mineral form to paint with. The cat disappeared then returned to show him where he could get it from, so the cat was included in the picture!
I think traditionally only the animals of the Chinese zodiac, rat, ox, dog, monkey…. etc. were included because it was thought that they came to pay their last respects to the dying Buddha, but the cat being proud and self-satisfied didn’t come (see the book “The Cat Who Went to Heaven” by Elizabeth Coatsworth)!
In Gassho,
I know this will not change lives however if you want to read alternate reasons why the cat is not one of the zodiac animals go here and scroll down to ‘Origin Stories’.
Hell will no doubt rain down upon me for mentioning that cats might possibly exhibit pride etc. Sometimes we get so close to our animal friends we believe they are us; that’s human. One summer, when a novice, I took care of a dog; I held her tight through thunder storms, shampooed and cream rinsed her, combed her pantaloons to perfection, cooked special food for her and her cat companion. Then one day she bent her beautiful head and gulped down some poop! We were, at once, ‘one’ and very very different.
