Monthly Archives: October 2007

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Not Two

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A chap who had been coming here regularly wrote an email to me today letting me know that:

Zen training is not for me and I have arranged to go to an ashram in India, travelling on the 23rd Oct. And further on in the email he wrote: I am not a religious man and prefer a practical hands on, spiritual approach. Something like, try everything deeply, until something fits deeply.

Here is part of my reply:

I find it interesting that you say I am not a religious man and prefer a hands on practical, spiritual approach. You know, I might have said that! I probably did say that on my application for my first introductory retreat, way back when. So what is the difference, (between being a religious man and a spiritually orientated one)? Is it to do with difficulties around so called organized religion? When I think about it we are, of all the schools of Buddhism, known for our ‘hands on practical approach’. Yes, and we certainly are organized too, however from where I sit life would be a shambles without it! Now the ‘religion’ part I can see how you might be struggling. Nothing is an obstacle in the end of course…

So for all the people who will be in flight soon, including my correspondent, here is a short scripture which I recite silently when taking off and landing:

Invocation for the Removal of Disasters
Adoration to all the Buddhas.
Adoration to the limitless teaching.
Peace! Speak! Blaze Up! Open!
To the glorious, peaceful One
For Whom there is no disaster,
Hail! Hail! Hail!

Zen is a Religion Thanks to RB for quoting Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennet on the subject of religion.

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Mutual Encouragement

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Remind us of what is important
Link lay and monastic training
Spiritual encouragement
Inspiration
Teaching

This is what one reader came up with when asked about what she saw as being offered here. My purpose in asking was to get a sense of the balance of articles and where it would be good to make adjustments.

What is not mentioned in the list is links to films. Here’s one to be going along with. The Year of the Dog it shows promises. Maybe a candidate for a Dharmaflix review. It’s a film about what it means to devote yourself to something other than your fears and desires, to shed that hard, durable shell called selfishness. It is, rather remarkably, an inquiry into empathy as a state of grace. And if that sounds too rarefied for laughs, rest assured, it’s also about a stone-cold beautiful freak.

Thanks Angie for the feed-back and Mike in Edmonton for the link to the film.

I look at that list above and think, Yep, that’s what this blog offers me! Thanks folks, all of you, for your kind support and encouragement to keep on writing.

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Grieving Beard

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Old Mans Beard, AKA Traveller’s Joy

Climbing on the stone wall and tumbling over into the lane this rambling plant graces our walks to and from the meditation hall and main buildings.

I wrote about the concept of the grieving beard back in the spring of 2006. That’s a beard grown by men when they are remembering somebody. When they have finished grieving they shave it off.

Well there is certainly a lot going on in the world that would cause us to grieve. Just sitting with that, in particular the situation in Burma, is the best one can do.

Daily Life, Films/Books, Information

Many a Slip Twixt Cup and Lip

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On Sunday somebody kindly brought along a book for me to read. We had been talking at a previous Sunday meeting about Into Great Silence. That’s the film about Grande Chartreuse the mother house of the Carthusian Order of contemplative monks. I’d actually forgotten about the book so it was a pleasant surprise to receive it.

The book An Infinity of Little Hours, gives background to the order and then brings it alive with the stories of five young men who entered Parkminster, the Charterhouse in Sussex, in the early 1960’s. This book makes for compelling reading for anybody interested in monasticism or by stories of people overcoming, and not overcoming, great difficulties. I believe only one of the five made it through the rigors to their final, ‘for life’, vows.

Quite often, and it happens with people who are on the way to joining our order, the vocation is tested literally on the journey. One lad travelling from America on the Mauretania in l960, on board he fell in love with a girl from Manchester. He was torn between his vocation and the girl who had dazzled him so. When the ship docked in Liverpool, after sitting with much inner conflict he went with her to Manchester, instead of Sussex as he had intended, and arranged previously. Not the end of the story though.

This is taken from the book:

Still dazzled, he took her to a movie theatre and arrived there in time for the last of the commercials that preceded the feature film. The ad showed a line of Carthusian monks on their way to church. With monastic chant in the background, the ad went on to promote green Chartreuse liqueur, Bernie didn’t need any more signs. He got up immediately, said goodbye to the young lady, and set off for London and then on to Sussex.

Still later when he had been living ‘in cell’ as the Carthusians term the life, since it is so bound up with living alone in a cell, he decided he couldn’t take the life any longer. He was on his way to tell the Novice Master his final decision. However, faith having not completely deserted him, before he left his cell he prayed for help. Although just a short distance to walk the cry for help turned him around and by the time he was facing the Novice Master he had decided to stay. No flashing lights or bolts from the blue. He just saw things dramatically differently, and very quickly. That can happen.

Incidentally one of the slips, in the context of a monastic vocation, is pregnancy.

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There is another review of Into Great Silence on Dharmaflix by Decent Films Guide. Why not do a review, there are good films out there.

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R.I.P.

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This cat in Montana loved to hang out on the bird table, with the statue of Kanzeon. Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.

Uma, who had a mention a few days ago, died this afternoon. Now we just have Smudge the cat. He was off down the lane in the dark this evening, probably hunting.