Monthly Archives: November 2013

Daily Life, Out and About, Teachings

Good Training Opportunities

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Sometimes light, sometimes in shadow.
Sometimes light, sometimes in shadow.

People sometimes refer to an anticipated future event or circumstance as  being a ‘good training opportunity’ and this generally includes a prediction that however ‘good’ the training personal suffer will be part of the process. I can remember an event which was indeed a good training opportunity but it wasn’t dark or involve suffering, or strife. Although things could have gone very differently if I’d had more chance to worry!

While staying in a small mountain temple in Japan in 2005 I realized (due to my default response of saying yes) I’d just agreed to celebrate morning service with everything being conducted in Japanese! Gulp! I basically guessed when to make bows and offer incense and then stood still with all the dignity I could muster while scriptures were chanted. Though it was testing my memory is of being so grateful for all the   training/meditation I’d undertaken (in darkness and light) up to that point. I could almost hear Rev. Master Jiyu chuckling – she would have been proud.

Then circumstances can be so extreme there isn’t space to separate oneself from them and one responds in almost an effortless way not touched or caught up in drama. So what might have been in shadows and hard to see ones way through comes into the light. That was the case around the time of my fathers sudden death on a railway platform. I’m still amazed and grateful for everything surrounding his death.

Somebody wrote recently telling me about how she found her way through a series of serious life changing steps almost effortlessly. It could have been different however she knew how to move out of the shadows, which are invariably there, into clarity. She reported feeling guided and carried.  One way of understanding this is that the merit of one’s practice carries one forward.

I know spiritual merit is something many find difficult to accept, let alone understand, however one thing it is not is reward for past good training! So perhaps it’s wisest not to anticipate good training opportunities, however human and understandable such thoughts might be.

This post is for a good friend in the sangha who I like to feel is dancing from one bright spot to another as she continues to daily face more decisions and difficult negotiations. Keep dancing dear friend!

Falls Between the Cracks, Information

Neural Circuits – Consciousness Explored

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Sunny early winter stroll.
Sunny early winter stroll.

Ever wondered what the neural circuits in the human brain look like? I can’t keep my eyes off the beautiful feathery image at the start of an article titled A Neuroscientist’s Radical Theory of How Networks Become Conscious. Anybody interested in consciousness studies will benefit from reading this article. I must confess to getting a bit lost towards the end when the wondering went to whether or not the Internet is conscious… Be that as it might be I’ve returned once more this evening to gaze at the neural circuits of the brain. I’d publish it here but copyright issues have me refraining. More stunning images of the brain on The Human Connectome Project site.

Daily Life, photograph

Depth – Beauty

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bridge1While out walking this morning I noticed depth in a way I don’t think I’ve appreciated in quite the same intensity. From close up to the sky there is layer upon layer of texture and substance, colour – and the marking of passing time. Add to that input from the rest of the senses and right there is a symphony. I don’t regard myself as one finely attuned to what you might call beauty however I think I’m getting there. Dare I say!

We talk about deepening meditation and that expression has tended to leave me wondering. Just what exactly does that mean? I’d find it quite difficult to put into words depth in connection with meditation. Yet there is no doubt that meditation is profound and well….deep. Sometimes you know and notice and sometimes, most times, not. I guess deepening is noticing the depth, the beauty. And then refraining from naming. And especially refraining from grading meditation. Deep, deeper, deepest! Good or bad, or terrible!

So my last thought on the subject is that beauty is ever-present. And infinitely deep.

Uncategorized

The Back Burner and Creativity

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When a section of Buddhist teaching or some advice offered just doesn’t seem to ‘sit right’ or ‘ring true’ we advise putting it on the back burner (to cook slowly over time) and wait. Sometimes years later something somebody said or something read will come back with clarity and meaning to teach just when it is most needed. Here is a poet who uses much the same method.

The American poet Amy Lowell spoke of dropping a subject she had in mind for a poem, “much as one drops a letter into a mailbox.” From that point, she said, she simply waited for the answer to come “by return post.” Sure enough, six months later she would find the words of the chosen subject coming into her head.
From American Poetry: The Twentieth Century Robert Haas. compiler, 2000.

Creativity, the process, is always of interest to me. We are all blessed with the capacity are we not. Patience seems to be paramount.

Teachings

A Mind Subject To Changing

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This last week I’ve had much opportunity to reflect on the matter of trust while walking slowly (walking meditation but not to obviously!) in the corridors of a hospital. On Friday I wrote a post titled Intend to Trust which relates somewhat to my experiences this week. Right at the end of the post there is reference to the importance of listening to those inner promptings which may involve needing to back tracking on a course of action. The matter of the embarrassment one feels when a change of mind or heart is made public is a subject all of its own for a future post.

Living in society, functioning within a community, one endevours to prove oneself trust worthy through ones consistent behaviour. When it becomes necessary to go back on ones word this inevitably brings censure, however good and right the the reason. So intending to trust enters a whole new dimension when it comes to trusting oneself in pressured circumstances, don’t you think.