Amazing what a bit of sun can do. Happened upon the Buddha this afternoon caught in a sun beam. Paused a long moment before chasing down my camera to record the moment, for you.

Buddha with ‘wheel’ of amber
Earlier pleasantly surprised to find my brain working sufficiently well to string a few sentences together of a thoughtful nature. It has been almost a month now, traveling unknowingly in brain fog. That’s the fog that engulfs the mind and has one locked into an all consuming world of pain and worry. The fog has lifted and now I know why thinking and writing has been such a struggle.

Amazing what a bit of sun can do. Lifts the spirits. Packed a flask of hot water, milk and a tea bag this afternoon. Climbed up a nearby field and paused for a long moment sitting against a stone wall. Brrr, still a bit chilly.

The unmoving wall looking towards the Yorkshire Dales
Yesterday I did nothing for two minutes. If you want to give it a try follow the link and then click on the ocean to start the timer. Two minutes seems like an eternity so accustomed am I to moving a mouse and tapping the keyboard when looking at my computer screen. Remembering my two minute eternity of doing nothing I chose to observe inactivity up there by the wall. Nature lends itself to quiet contemplation.

Amazing what a bit of sun can do. Shafting across the chilled land, picking out the school bus taking children home to distant farms and hamlets. So good to have this chance to sit and drink tea in the company of sheep, and my own non foggy brain!

In the folds of the Upper Eden Valley
I know I am not alone, a lone suffer of what I am calling brain fog. There’s a long list of physical, mental and emotional states which has the brain less than sharp. Which locks the person into themselves, sometimes for years at a time. My troubles have been small and short lived. Writing now, thoughts of those whose mental capacities are compromised, perhaps long term, sends a light of small appreciation for what that must be like.

What ever the level
of light,
pausing long enough
to allow what’s there to
enter in
is a very good thing.

Many thanks to the reader for the link referred to in this post.

This is a follow on post to Pains In The Head.

December sunrise

Light goes with darkness.
Darkness enfolds light.
We think we want light
and not darkness.
What’s wrong
with darkness?

Is it because we cannot see
whats coming.
Because it holds scary stuff
coming to get us?
Holds mystery
we can’t fathom?

Perhaps
potential unrealised?

Perhaps.

Hat tip to Kaspa over there in the Purple Clouds for his post: Finding your ‘true self’, or realizing ‘no-self’?

Moon eclipse

At the end of the day.
Ring the gong. Twice.

At the start of the day.
Ring the gong. Thrice.

If nothing else is possible
At least RING.
Bow
Clarify intention.

At the end of the day
Recite thus:

Hail to the Mandala
Let us so be engulfed within
its praises ever more that
By our own wills and vigilance
May we our fetters cut away
May we within the temple of our
own hearts dwell
Amidst the myriad mountains
Hail! Hail! Hail!

There’s a lot in that simple verse to Achalanatha. The Bodhisattva known as the immovable one.

Lived with conviction,
recited regularly,
lives change
at a profound level.

Even when there seems little reason for jubilation, no cause for merriment, no sun shining, no uplift, there is always the temple of ones own heart. To return to. Hail!