Respect

From a train heading north to Friesland, The Netherlands
I’m in the Netherlands. Think tulips, think windmills, think water! And much more. This morning my host was driving us, and her Greyhound, to a forest where dogs can run free. Vast swaths of land have been reclaimed from the sea, we were at one point driving along the original dyke wall. For as far as the eye could see where once water now forest, fields and dwellings. Amazing engineering when you think about it.

Anyway, this isn’t a travel blog. I’ve a thought to pass on picked up from a meeting in Manchester Thursday evening:
‘Don’t judge my story
By the chapter
You walk into!’.

For a woman I was with today whose story I was invited to read, Respect. Never judge her, nor pity her either.

Undivided Activity – Full Quote from Zenki

Bess with ball. Undivided Activity…..

Here it is, the whole quote I’ve been publishing over the last week or so.

Birth is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails, row with the oar, and steer. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride, and without the boat you couldn’t ride. But you ride in the boat and your riding makes the boat what it is…
When you ride in a boat, your body and mind and the environs together are the undivided activity of the boat. The entire earth and the entire sky are both the undivided activity of the boat.

This post is for Bess and her person and all those who walk the fells. On two feet or four. May we all go safely watched over, as it were, by those past present and future who love. Unconditionally.

Earth Sky – No Gap

The entire earth and the entire sky
are both the
undivided activity
of the boat

This is the last section of the quote from Dogen’s Zenki. I’ll publish all of the quote tomorrow. However many times I visit these words they do not make ordinary sense. And I think that’s the idea, pointing us past what makes sense to a deeper truth that’s universal. It takes us out of ourselves while very much rooted in action.

The photo is from a walk called the Kentmere Round which I did on Monday.

Undivided Activity

When you ride in a boat, your body and mind and the environs together are the undivided activity of the boat.

It’s worth spending some time sitting with this. Really. Our lives as riding in a boat. Or riding makes the boat (living) what it is.

This photograph was taken about a month ago. A Regatta on the Thames.

Life -Like Riding In A Boat

The following quote is from Undivided Activity (Zenki) Zen Master Dogen.

Birth is just like riding in a boat. You raise the sails, row with the oar, and steer. Although you row, the boat gives you a ride, and without the boat you couldn’t ride.

But you ride in the boat and your riding makes the boat what it is.

More of this tomorrow.