It is the anniversary of my Masters ordination on the 21st January. Here are some photographs to commemorate that event forty two years ago. The photographs were taken while I was staying at Cheng Hoon Teng, Malaysia in May/June of last year.

It had been Rev. Seck Kim Sengs wish that there be a library established and recently one was opened next door to the main temple. It is named The Seck Kim Seng Memorial Library. While staying at the temple I would visit and chat with the librarian. Slowly, as I showed more and more interest and enthusiasm, he started to bring out more and more historic items which he thought I would be interesting in seeing. The first and third photographs were taken during one of these temple treasure explorations. I was so fortunate to have been shown so much. This is not the half of it.

Seck Kim Seng as a young monk.

The temple in Malacca, Malaysia where Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett was ordained on the 21st January, 1962 by the Very Reverend Seck Kim Seng. Note the Buddhist flags and the Indian style stupa to the left side of the photograph.

The librarian and archivist at Cheng Hoon Teng Malacca pointing out the name of Seck Kim Seng on the stupa that once held his cremated remains. In the foreground are (I think) Kim Seng’s ordination certificates. The major part of the remains are now permanently enshrined at the temple across the road. On the day I visited I didn’t take my camera.

I note that Rev. Master Jiyu stayed in Malacca until April of 1962 before going on to train at Dai Hon Zan Sojiji in Yokohama, Japan with the Abbot the Very Reverend Keido Chisan Koho Zenji. You can read about her life while practicing in Japan in The Wild, White Goose, the Diary of a Female Zen Priest. I see that the book is dedicated “To all women seeking Spiritual Truth and especially to those who have ever entered into Zen training”.

Thank you Rev. Master, you will never be forgotten.

This evening my thoughts were taken back to Kew. That’s the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew by the Thames, London. There, standing ten stories, is a Chinese Pagoda to be viewed from miles around. My first sight of this foreign building, at around age eight, left a lasting impression. It said much and mostly, I realize now, spoke silently of something bigger than myself. Not just physically but ‘otherly’.

The capacity of children to be awed, to stand in wonderment at a sight or sound, to know it and be satisfied is a wonder in itself. And still there remains that capacity in adulthood. I’d think it a sad thing if we were to loose that.

Until a moment ago I’d not made the connection between the pagoda at Kew and Buddhism! Yes, it certainly did make a lasting impression, probably a seed that changed my life.

Seeds just need the right conditions to start growing and that comes in a timely fashion for all.

Taken in southern Alberta last summer; what a corker!
Copyright attributed to the (unknown) photographer.

You may have seen that I have put a notice at the bottom of the main page. Essentially it means that material on this blogger is protected under a Creative Commons License.

In order to insert that notice I had to overcome my natural reticence to do new things. I did have help and I’m thankful for that. Now I have taken that first step behind the scenes and gained some confidence I’m having to restrain myself from tinkering about too much. For the uninitiated the coding looks, at first glance, like a knitting pattern. But that is as far as it goes, believe me!

The other day somebody pointed out a photograph of an inukshuk on our calendar. Since he works in the North West Territories, and many of his colleagues are Inuit, he’s knowledgeable about these native people and there culture. He said these way-markers basically mean, “We were here”. He was clear that it was in the past tense. Here’s an Inukshuk on the 2010 Winter Olympics logo.

“Inukshuk (ee-nook-shook or ee-nook-sook) is an Inuktitut word that means to look like a person (an Inuk). It is a stone cairn which has been used by the Inuit people to mark high points of land, good hunting and fishing spots or the way home. Inuit have been building Inuksuit (ee-nook-soo-eet / plural) for thousands of years. It is a symbol of trust and reassurance for those who travel across the vastness of the Arctic.” You can build your own virtual inukshuk…

‘A symbol of trust and reassurance for travelers’. Those who have walked the hills know about Britain’s way markers, the cairn. And closer to home there is the Buddhist stupa. Somewhere (and I wish I had a better memory for this kind of thing) it is said that to build a bridge or a stupa is an act of charity.