Surrendering to the need for survival.
As much as anything I simply wish to keep up the collective offering of merit to Lee. The Dave he refers to in this post is our very own Dave who reads and comments here.
Extending Merit
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Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties
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PDFMaking Offerings
We pray you may receive our offerings….
Today, this afternoon. Jill’s Funeral. And then the interment of a portion of her cremated remains. It is hard to let go of good friends, a good sangha friend. Attaching and detaching flow together through out our entire life. (Quote attributed to Zen Master Dogen). Knowing this to be true does not make living it any easier. It does show that we are human.
Here words at the end of the interment of the ashes spoken on a windy hillside in Northumberland.
We pray that the Pure Mirror of Wisdom will share its light with you and that the True Wind will cover you with the coloured halo so that you can be enlightened in the Garden of the Bodhisattvas and work in the Waveless Sea that is Immaculacy Itself. We pray that you may receive our offerings as we say farewell to you, Jill, within the clouds that hide the heavens from our sight. We bow before the Holy Bodhisattvas and we offer incense to them.
Looking up. Pointing to faith. Bowing to the Bodhisattvas. Grateful that the rain held off long enough for us to all get indoors and have a cup of hot tea. And chat. This is all letting go, moving on.
Always an honour to officiate on such occasions.
A Different Perspective
View from above the Pembrokeshire Coast
The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, viewed with Google Earth is a doddle. Flying above the land, seeing remnants of an old air field, as in this image, brings a new perspective. And so it is with life circumstances some times. To fly above, to zoom out, to take the long view can help troubled times take on a three dimensional quality. And perhaps in doing that troubled times are seen with fresh insight.
I hope when Adrienne is lifting her boot on this stretch of coast I’ll be walking behind her, one step at a time.
Sustained Intention
Looking across the Eden Valley, Eastern Cumbria.
What does it mean to commit oneself? To avow? To promise? To throw ones heart and soul into something or someone? To commit to a future outcome? To see something through, no matter what that might involve? Commitment is about sustained intention. Steadfastness. Boldly going on!
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor (sic) all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it! From William Hutchinson Murray’s (1913-1996) 1951 book The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.
But this not any old passing thought. My thinking about commitment is linked to a chap I heard about recently who is writing a blog called Future Health 2020 (adventures with cytotoxic chemicals). Here he is introducing himself, Hi, I’m Lee. I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma on 26 February 2013. This blog charts my journey to future health. Here is a man who has definitely committed himself. I bow to you and may providence flow through and into your life – I guess we would call that spiritual merit.
There is a lesson here for all of us. About commitment to life, the living of it wholeheartedly, no matter what comes.
Read Lee’s post of April 15th where the above quote comes from.
Arriving – Home
Pitiably they cried – give us food.
Yesterday these sheep came running towards me from all directions, lambs jumping and leaping and all together, Ewes and lambs, they wanted something. The noise of their cries was something to behold. People do say the pasture is exceptionally late in greening. In fact there isn’t any greening at all that I can see. Farmers are reporting more lamb deaths this year than ususal. So animal suffering out there on the fells and hills right now and with little hope of an improvement in the weather in the near future. Spare a thought for our starving friends.
And there is somebody out there in Derbyshire walking her socks off (well hopefully not literally) in preparation for her impending hike along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Adrienne is also preparing to make blog posts to The Merit of Walking as she goes. Here is a post she just made from some windy hill. Erm, no it comes to us from the Grouse Inn where she was eating sticky toffee pudding!
Adrienne has obviously been doing more than recreational walking. At the top of the post she writes:
I have arrived –
I am home –
my destination
in each step.