Rev Alicia has moved to south Derbyshire and when ready will be opening the doors of *Sitting Buddha Hermitage to individuals wishing to retreat.
We drove from Throssel yesterday, will be out today shopping for few essentials and tomorrow I drive back north in the hired van.
The sun is shining out of a clear blue sky and breakfast is nearly cooked. Onwards into another day and when Rev Alicia has an Internet connection she will be posting regular news of progress.
*This is the name of the temple which is supported by the Field of Merit charity.
There can come about a stooping physically and stooping mentally/emotionally and really the two go hand in hand. We are after all, all-of-a-piece, psycho-physical beings. To some extent everybody has their stoopingly moments. Times when life gets a bit too much and we curl up, contract and withdraw into ourselves. Hopefully, and I’d say inevitably, contracting ourselves is sooner or later replaced with expansion, of regaining our full height and width and inner resilience. Hah! The WordWeb dictionary defines resilience thus: The physical property of a material that can return to its original shape or position after deformation that does not exceed its elastic limit. And also: An occurrence of rebounding or springing back. How very resilient we are when considering, for example, the way seriously damaged youngsters (babies even) live on into adulthood. Yes, and at any age a life event can have us peering out from behind frightened eyes, tensed right through to the toes. Yes, sometimes we are stretched past our elastic limits and regaining our shape, so to speak, may not be possible. But not impossible.
These two ponies are not stooping behind the wall, they are just short! I loved their expressions, they are 100% HERE. The black pony stood on tiptoe to reach through the wire and over the wall to see if there was anything I had of interest. Hungry? You can’t help but love ’em and small ponies seem to have an extra dollop of presence which, if you’re dealing with them, can be a problem. But this post isn’t about small ponies it’s about Buddhist practice and an instruction which is too often picked up and run with when it is wisest to question what the teaching actually is. The instruction, almost a mantra for some, is ‘get self out-of-the-way’. In practice I understand that as grasping ones will and turning down the volume of the me, me, me aspect of oneself. Parents have to teach their children how to do that without crushing their life and vitality into the ground and we have to do that for ourselves. As adults, mature adults, turning down the volume on one’s personal wants, needs and desires (and hurts) is to live in society in reasonable harmony while at the same time being as kind as a kind and loving parent.
The problem or difficulty comes when the teaching, get self out of the way is mistakenly heard as get rid of self, deny oneself in a harsh and uncompromising way. As with children and small ponies so too with us fallible adults we can lose it. When this happens our individual self-nature appears infinite, and it’s obvious we are a problem to ourselves let alone for others! The fact is we are unified body/minds which left alone (read that as stop and sit still) will move from needy and contracted to expanded, curious, generous. Kind. (My self teaching/reminder is the right thing does itself, given half a chance.)
The thing is even the needy and hurt who stoop behind frightened eyes (and with historic good reason), are still Buddha. Here is the last paragraph from a post titled A World of Difference by Rev. Alicia. My post was inspired by hers.
It is hard to let go of blame, but I see more and more that it doesn’t help things. And I’m not denying that we sometimes have to deal with circumstances that are a cause for deep concern. Recognising and accepting our own fear and distress is a necessary step in becoming still. Allowing skillful action to be called forth from us, it is more likely that we will do what is of most benefit to all beings, and that, of course, includes ourselves.
Let there be generous applications of compassion and acceptance for that which we call the self.
Story and photo of an almost frozen baby bear cub. The young cub is putting on weight by drinking a formula containing milk, protein, honey, salt, and egg yolk.
Yes, just a moment to remember the creatures. Please.
…you cannot accurately determine anything about someone’s beliefs based on their religious label. And I have to say even when two people share the same label, say Buddhist, and practice within the same tradition, one can’t really know what the other person believes in or even practices! For example, a room full of people meditating, all from the same tradition, may each have completely different ideas about it… Only a problem when those ideas come between people. That is nowhere more so than when families are made up of two or more faith traditions.
The following is, I believe, a quote from a book called Being Both. It’s about interfaith families.
Whether or not two people have the same religious or nonreligious label, they are never going to share identical beliefs, practices, culture, family history. Both partners could be Reform Jews and one could be an atheist, the other a mystic. Or both partners could be secular humanists, and one loves to celebrate a huge Christmas and the other, not so much. Or both partners could be Protestant, but one sees Jesus as the Messiah and the other sees Jesus as more of a teacher or rabbi or even as a metaphor. What we teach children in interfaith community religious education is that you cannot accurately determine anything about someone’s beliefs based on their religious label.
I’d replace ‘discard’ with ‘let go of’. No doubt the quote is intended to address the perennial problem of clutter. An encouraging thought and a direction to take for the popular past time of de-cluttering and its companion minimalism in all its forms. But I’ll take this quote out of the external world and into the internal, reflective realm of meditation and contemplation. Both formal zazen and everyday meditation.
Yes obviously it is necessary to organise our thoughts and feelings, to get our ducks in a row for all sorts of practical reasons. However I’d like to suggest that its worth questioning oneself as to just HOW necessary it is. For what purpose? Truthfully.
Yes sometimes posts here can disturb and be thought-provoking with little offered in terms of answers. I’d like to suggest that it is the disturbance itself rather than the thoughts provoked which can be usefully ‘let go of’. Just a thought.
Quickly forget those Jade Mountains posts! Come back soon.
