One of the senior monks of our Order in the UK, Rev. Master Saido of Telford Buddhist Priory, was recently interviewed on BBC Radio Shropshire. Through the ‘magic’ of the internet and Rev. Saido’s web masterly skills he has posted the talk on the priory web site. For those with a fast broadband connection there is an mp3 file to download and for dial up connections you can ‘stream’ the talk. OK, that means you will listen through your computer. I don’t pretend to understand much more than that.

I listened to most of the talk last evening. It comprises of Rev. Saido talking on Buddhist practice and what brought him to it and also a long section where the congregation talk about their understanding of practice. The whole program is accessible to non Buddhists and puts what we do into a context that people interested in trying us for size can relate to.

Time is running out. Too bad. I wanted to post a photo of the space where the priory ‘wheelie bin’ (garbage can) was before it got stolen early one morning. I was staying at the priory at the time of the theft and saw the bin disappearing up the road. They say there is a market for these bins in Ireland.

That’s right, it is the official start of winter to-day. Each year, on this day, my dad was keen to point this out and would announce: ‘We are now entering the black hole’! December 21st has the latest sunrise and the earliest sunset, it’s the shortest day. (Bright and sunny here in Edmonton with temperatures rising above 0 c. Hardly winter).

The days don’t start drawing out again for a few weeks. My father would announce; “We are out of the black hole. Thank goodness“! when the allotted day arrived. (When is that day, anybody know?) In the mean time in darkness there are lights and I am enjoying them sparkling from the trees on Whyte Avenue, tastefully done too. The city has ‘gone to town’ with lighting, especially around the legislative building. I saw them briefly the other evening on a trip through the city. Hopefully I’ll be escorted there one evening before they get switched off so I can appreciate their magic at a leisurely pace.

Here is an uplifting message for those who need one:

While the light of the world is diminishing may your heart and mind be steady and ever bright. And may you ‘go on beyond’ the ups and downs of daily life and know the, ever present, ‘serene luminescence’ now before your very eyes; unchanging, undying, uncreated. Permanent.

Note: In my book on plain English I read that it is OK to split infinitives. I think I just did that!

Keep up the meditation folks.

Following a subtle inner prompting, which went something like “you could put more effort into your writing Mugo”, I took the plunge and bought a book at Chapters with my gift card. It is called Oxford Guide to Plain English, a compelling read and chock full of easy to digest instructions. Here is a definintion of plain English writing, quoted from the book:

The writing and setting out of essential information in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding it as first reading, and in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood.

Who hasn’t read an official document of some kind and ended up non the wiser? The plea for plain English has been around for a long time. Quoting from the book again:

In the fourteenth century Chaucer had one of his characters demand:

This months issue of The National Geographic Magazine has a feature called Buddha Rising. – ‘Out of the monastery, into the living room’. There are some excellent photos including one of the Shasta Abbey monks on Alms Round in Mount Shasta, California. It’s a good picture. You might want to take a look when you browse the magazine racks.

One of the wonders of the internet is that The National Geographic, and other large magazines, publish content on their web sites not included in the paper version. If you go to the National Geographic and then go to the Slide Show: Buddha Rising you will see, towards the end of the show, an interesting picture. It’s of monks in Thailand, I think, who are knotting kesas (robe given at ordination) around the trees! Apparently the monks are performing tree ordinations. There are a number of monks in Thailand who are embracing the lives of trees, as well as the lives of their human supporters. Do a search on ‘tree ordinations’ if you want to find out more. Here I go on trees again…!

Anyway, if you have a fast internet connection, and even if you don’t, there is a lot of interesting background material to be found. My favorite is the author, Perry Garfinkel in the section ‘On Assignment’, writing about his meeting with the Dalai Lama.

“Somehow his calm made me feel calm, like a hand-to-hand tranquility transfusion. The man had me at ‘hello’.”

He was obviously quite disarmed.

Early this morning Andrew Taylor-Browne talked on Radio Cornwall, England. Here is what he said:

“In our living room on our farm at the moment we have a Christmas tree, covered in the usual lights, tinsel, and other decorations. Now for people who don’t know us there is nothing at all strange about this. However, our friends and family do sometimes wonder what Zen Buddhists are doing with a Christmas tree in their house.

Well, actually although it looks just like a Christmas tree it is for us a Buddhist Jewel Tree, and we are celebrating the Buddha’s Enlightenment. The Festival of the Buddha’s Enlightenment is traditionally observed on December 8th, but we take advantage of the season’s celebrations to decorate our house throughout the rest of December.

The decorations represent in visual form what the world looked like when Buddha realised enlightenment and so they represent what it can look like to us if we see with the eyes of Buddha, and this in fact is something that is open to any of us to do at any time.

Now it is probably quite sensible to understand this imagery in a metaphorical way. We often notice that our ideas and emotions stop us realising what is really going on in a particular situation. Indeed, we can be so caught up with ourselves that we hardly notice what is going on at all. If we can manage to stop looking at the world through our own fears and insecurities, clouded by the grasping after things, the anger and confusion that so frequently fill our minds, then the world truly presents itself in a very different way. In fact what we can then see is a tremendous love, compassion and wisdom in all people, all circumstances and indeed all things. So, in one sense the jewels on the tree symbolise this love, which shines through all things.

And in another sense we can often see these jewels more directly. When we look with love, sympathy and understanding at people their eyes sparkle as jewels. And some people find that the world can take them by surprise and break through their personal worries and concerns. Clear night skies, light on the waves of the sea, morning mist hanging in a valley, houses, hedgerows, trees and fields covered with snow, even rain droplets hanging like jewels on the winter branches of a tree. All these have the capacity to speak directly to our hearts. And what they say is that we are not separate from the world or from anything in it.

So, I can only wish for you all that during the coming fortnight you each get a chance to see your own real life jewel trees, and glimpse the true nature of the universe, and its all embracing love, compassion and wisdom.”

Andrew that was great, thanks for giving permission to publish your words.

Here is the priory altar, with jewel trees.