Tomorrow we celebrate the Birth and Enlightenment of the Buddha termed Wesak and the monastery is suitably dressed for celebration. Each year during Wesak week-end parents, together with their off spring, are welcomed into the monastery to mingle and to play. The atmosphere is informal, creative and very active. There was football on the lawn at 4.00 pm, a music workshop all afternoon in the library and a picnic to round off the day. Earlier a crowd did some dry stone walling while others did map making.

Meet Miles, veteran reader and comment sender. He and his partner and 8 month old son were here today. It was a great joy to meet them all together.

Go anywhere in Britain and sooner rather than later you will bump into the bizarre. We seem to thrive on it. I've included the three silver birch tree trunks as my own contribution. I've title that legs hundred and eleven If you have never played bingo you wouldn't understand.

One man and his sheep.

Legs hundred and eleven.

Don't ask!

These pictures were taken on Friday in the grounds of an old Abbey close to Nottingham. This afternoon a small group of us visited Kirkstall Abbey a Cistercian house close to Leeds built by the monks from Fountains Abbey.

For reasons that make no sense somebody had the idea to route the main road into Leeds right up the length of the nave of the abbey church. Those on foot, with time on their hands, carved their names in the pillars for posterity. Normal then, rather bizarre now.

(Thankfully the road now runs beside the church.)

Former Muslim radical Shiraz Maher spent his student days campaigning for an Islamic caliphate in which execution for renouncing Islam would be written into the constitution. Now Shiraz is calling for moderation and greater Muslim integration into British life, a stance which has meant he himself is now labelled an apostate by some Muslim radicals, for which the penalty is death. He asks whether such an extreme punishment is really justified by the Qu'ran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad. 'Could I Stop Being a Muslim?', BBC Radio 4 FM
Listen on-line or to the repeat Sunday 27th at 5.00 pm GMT

This programme explores the issue of apostasy the formal renunciation of ones religion thus becoming an apostate.

Contrary to Abrahamic dogmas, there is no concept of an apostate in Hinduism or Buddhism, as everyone is accepted as one and the same. Converts to other religions from Hinduism or Buddhism are accepted in these communities, as there is no Hindu or Buddhist procedure that defines apostasy.
- Wikipedia.

Thank you to my monastic walking companion for bringing the concept of apostasy to my attention. This is a new word for me but not a new concept, thankfully not one we have in Buddhism. I'll listen to the recording of the above programme when I return to the monastery tomorrow.

A reader is relocating from Florida and needs to place her two cats before the end of the month. This is heart breaking for a devoted cat lover. She may need to drive West with them on the back seat...unless they find new homes.

Today I definitely got both cats up on the shelter website -- if you want something done it's necessary to do it oneself sometimes. There must have been a miscommunication last week, as I thought they were set to put Mitra up then. Anyway, now they're both up here, under adoption.

Looking at the cat adoption site it's clear oceans of merit is needed for them to find homes. Offering merit is just about all I can offer at this point.

Mitra Domestic Long Hair, Dilute Tortoiseshell
Suzy, a green eyed 'senior'.

Here is the text for the About section of Jade Mountains. As you can see I'm linking to a selection of postings. I'd appreciate your suggestions on what would be good to include.

Who? I'm a female disciple and Dharma Heir of the late Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett having been ordained by her at Shasta Abbey California in 1981 and named a Master in 2000. Since 1996 I've served as the international O.B.C. Lay Ministry Adviser. I started to write a blog in 2003 however it was only in April 2005, when I embarked on a Pilgrimage to East Asia, that I started writing regularly. Initially I just wanted to share the sights and sounds of my journey with fellow monastics and lay friends. And I guess that's what I'm still doing...

Here’s a selection of postings to give you an overview of what I write about.

Why? Good question! In the end I think I continue to pump in text because this is a way I can pass on the teachings of Buddhism, given my set of monastic circumstances and responsibilities. There is a pull towards Compassion, that's why.

What's Offered? Apart from the blog, which tends to take center stage at present, there are links to basic teachings and scriptures we use within the O.B.C., some book recommendations, articles addressing themes in practice, Dharma Talks. This is work in progress, I'm limited by the amount of time I can devote to developing the site.

In Brief What you will find here is a medley of expression and to derive benefit from it, like a musical composition, there is a needs to listen with attention, within oneself. Somewhat poetic, yet true.

Just so you know, the views/ideas/teachings expressed here on this site do not necessarily represent those of the Order as a whole.

Here are my hosts of the last two days moving towards Chichester Cathedral.

We walked around the old walls of Chichester this morning. There's Greyfriers where William Blake was tried for....? Following the thread of interest (and curiosity) Wikipedia gave us the answer.

He (William Blake) rejected all forms of imposed authority; indeed, he was charged with assault and uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the King in 1803, though he later was cleared in the Chichester assizes of the charges. The charges were brought by a soldier called John Schofield after Blake had bodily removed him from his garden, allegedly exclaiming, "Damn the king. The soldiers are all slaves."[17] According to a report in the Sussex county paper, "The invented character of [the evidence] was ... so obvious that an acquittal resulted."[18] Schofield was later depicted wearing "mind forged manacles" in an illustration to Jerusalem.[19]
Wikipedia entry for William Blake.

Blake lived in Sussex as do my hosts. At the renewal of their marriage vows they had the following piece of Blake read out. After some research we found the quote is from J.B.Priestly's *Time and the Conways and not Auguries of Innocence.

Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born;
Every morn and every night;
Some are born to sweet delight;
Some are born to sweet delight;
Some are born to endless night.
Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine;
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so:
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know
Safely through the world we go.

The play (Time and the Conways)emerged out of Priestley's reading of J. W. Dunne's book An Experiment with Time in which Dunne posits that all Time is happening simultaneously ie that past, present, future are one and that linear Time is only the way in which human consciousness is able to perceive this.

Nothing like following a thread of thought and interest leading back to here and now. I think this post is about creativity.

Why do some stars twinkle? Why do some cycle through yellow, cyan and magenta so impressively? Thus we ponder this evening, my walking monk companion and I. We spin on the subject of stars and colour balance and photo printing for awhile, we then move on. There is no lack of subjects to talk about as we walk in the dark. One sojourn with this monk and I have enough material for a blogging week. For some odd reason the thought of smoking a cigarette came to mind towards the end of our walk. I've not lit up for over 30 years and have no intention of starting again, however old thoughts surface, and pass. Not a problem.

Walking up the lane after meditation this evening the stars were no longer visible, the sulky moon no where to be seen. The whole valley is filled with smoke, somewhere something is burning. This is unusual and no doubt we'll hear about it.

But what is really smokin' (an American expression I believe) is the behind the scenes work on both this site and Jade Mountains. Heavens! if I hadn't been so busy this past week(s) I'd have been occupying myself trying to understand the process of the two sites becoming one site. So, very soon this page will be looking rather different. I hope you will remain patient while all of this is happening. I cannot pretend to know what this development means in practice however it feels to me as dramatic as a house on fire. What will be left when the smoke clears?

Many thanks to my friend in Texas, a fellow Buddhist blogger and all round generous chap, who is beavering away behind the scenes in his spare time. And thanks also to my walking companion who helps me unstintingly in so many ways.

Wet and windy driving conditions (North West of England), endless long strait roads over flat fens (Norfolk), my favourite service station temporally rendered a building site (southbound Westmorland Services) all pale into insignificance in the face of a FAST INTERNET CONNECTION. Oh Joy, indeed.

But the subject on my mind this evening is memory, short term memory and the loss of it which comes with advancing years. I visited an elderly woman this afternoon who struggled to remember what she had just said and what she wanted to say right now. This happens to the best of us however at a certain point in ones life I can see how very frightening this can be. The question I am left with now is how much we/society equate loss of short term memory with dementia, especially in the elderly. Just a thought, a thought with a ladle full of compassion along with it.

Many thanks to Chris and his wife in Preston Lancashire where I'm staying before going on to Manchester tomorrow for a day retreat in the center of town. Hopefully by the end of Sunday I'll be back in Northumberland again attempting to reconnect with tasks as yet not tackled. These involve activating long term memory, which I don't have a problem with!

Trog, dog of the blog! Jazzy from Edmonton, eat your heart out.

Just having a bit of fun. I'd not want any cat fanciers to have their whiskers bent out of shape due to lack of cat photographs. Which reminds me of a cute cat event I witnessed the other day. Sadly I'd not got my camera with me at the time.

A new postulant was being instructed by the Head Novice. They were sitting in the novices common room gazing intently at a piece of paper on the table. Sitting on the table was Smudge, the novices cat. He was gazing at the paper intently too! It turned out that this was instruction on how, when and where to salt and grit the paths around the monastery. More signs that winter is approaching, not that we have that much snow. Ice, yes. Smudge will be out there stalking wildlife in the snow and ice, given half a chance.

A member of Trog's extended, human, family has recently died. This posting is offered in memory of the newly past on one, and for his family.