Well, that’s it! Seven pages of text typed, re-typed, edited, deleted, *wondered about, re-formatted, edited and re-edited again. There was a brief reply after I sent the document. “Got it”! Now I await a further response.

While looking for inspiration for a posting I came across a site that linked writing to thinking to learning more easily. I’m all for that, however what was a little worrying was that it came from the Artificial Intelligence Center. Just what IS that?

Misconceptions about writing
Myth: Writing is mainly about poetry and fiction.

Most of the writing in the world is for information.
It’s often done by people who don’t even like poetry and fiction.

Well, I’ve certainly been writing information these past weeks. It’s been a sort of a memory dump of the past ten years experience of fulfilling my monastic responsibility. And there is more to fall out of my memory banks, but that will have to be on another day.

*Wondered =’s ‘doubtful speculation’ also ‘be amazed at’.

How about the wonder of autumn in all of its glory around these parts in Englands Last Wilderness? Wonder Full.

Over in Cyprus, on a Mediterranean beach two dogs follow a lone blogger artist. One dog is lame and the other is both deaf and lacks a sense of smell. And those dogs link back to Odin the Wanderer, read on…

Thought is short and memory long. Odin was worshipped by the Norsemen (Vikings) as the Allfather. This religion died out over a thousand years ago leaving Odin to wander through the legendary “fading” until the final battle, Ragnarok. The final showdown between good and evil.
From Thole Man

I’ve always been attracted to wanderin’. The only vinyl record I ever owned was Lee Marvin singing (as only he can), “I was born under a wanderin’ star” from Paint Your Wagon (1969). Even then I thought is was my song. And if I remember rightly on the B side was a young Clint Eastward drawling, I talk to the stars but they don’t listen to me.

This evening, walking back to my room after meditation, the big dipper (or the plough) was hanging huge and high in the night sky. What an incredible place this is.

“Proper effort is not the effort to make something particular happen. It is the effort to be aware and awake in each moment, the effort to overcome laziness and defilement, the effort to make each activity of our day meditation”.
Kohn, Michael H.; tr. The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Boston: Shambhala, 1991

A number of years ago an elderly, deaf, Dominican monastic would come and stay with us and join in the monastery schedule. He was a gracious and quite spoken man and he would tell us stories.

On one visit he told us about his new hearing aid. One day, soon after he had his hearing aid, he was walking past the refractory. With his new device switched on he was shocked to hear the brethren apparently throwing the cutlery at the tables! Of course they weren’t and neither are the people here on retreat, however it does sounds like that.

Every now and then there needs to be a remind to the gathered guests to pay attention to the noise level in the dining room. Invariably, after such an announcement, what happens is people try very hard to handle their cutlery and bowls quietly and there are really loud crashes too, as a plate or knife escapes somebody’s grasp.

Sometimes the harder you try the worse things become, probably because the trying is coloured by anxiety and fear. At least the intention is good though. Some where it is said that Right Effort is the effort it takes for the Buddha to raise his foot. Which is rather different to the straining associated with ‘efforting’.