For the next week or so the monastic community will be spending a lot of time meditating formally in the meditation hall. Postings here will continue with photographs, which were mostly taken within the monastery grounds.
It was a joy to revisit the hidden-in-plain-view sights. Have a good week and perhaps you can find a seat at home and join us as we all just sit, looking at a wall.
Many thanks once again to Iain at Little House in the Paddy for making the postings to Moving Mountains while I’m off-line for Sesshin.
I learnt a new word this morning, Segue. It seemed unlikely I’d manage to accomplish the task of getting an order of stamps picked up in Hexham at such short notice. However the sequence of events leading to eventually getting them moved smoothly, sooo smoothly, one following upon another in a near miraculous way. Applauding the day aloud somebody said, Oh that’s segue, one thing following another smoothly.
In the process of looking up the word I discovered Websters On-Line Dictionary. Should I ever need to spell out this word in Semaphore, or British Sign Language, I’ll know where to look. What a gem!
I’d say the timing around mothers death was segue, if that is the correct way to use this word. Much about our relationship was segue.
This post is for Johnny, his brother, their aunt and their late mum. My mum too.
I visited a female monk this evening, she is recovering from a cold. Recovering slowly. This cold has gone the rounds of the monastery. It’s tapped on my door a few times, entered briefly, but not stayed. This time of year, leading up to the winter solstice, with ever shortening days can be hard on the whole system. Add to that sickness and the best of us can feel low, depleted and miserable with it.
Each year my father would write to me around this date to announce that we were going into the ‘black hole’. That’s the days before and after the solstice when the length of day varies by only a small amount. The expression was my dads invention. It was black because I think he found this time hard to get through. There is less light and with that a tendency to turn within. It’s a low energy time with little inclination to do much. That’s how it is for me. Just last night it dawned on me, low energy and lack of get-up-and-go need not become depressing of the spirits. December’s black hole can be positive because it can lead us inwards, there to reflect.
It also has to be said there are very many people who suffer terribly from lack of bright light. This time of year can be particularly difficult. There is however something practical that can be done to help this condition.
American director Edward A. Burger takes us on his unforgettable journey into the hidden lives of China’s forgotten Zen Buddhist hermit tradition. “Amongst White Clouds is a look at the lives of zealot students, gaunt ascetics and wise masters living in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and valleys of China’s Zhongnan Mountain range.” The Zhongnan Mountains have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. Many of China’s most realized Buddhist masters attained enlightenment in this very range! And now? It is widely thought that this tradition was all but wiped out by the twists and turns of history. “Amongst White Clouds” shows us this is not the case. One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these hidden sages, Burger reveals to us their tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives. With both humor and compassion, these inspiring and warm-hearted characters challenge us to join them in an exploration of our own suffering and enlightenment in this modern world.
If I understand correctly this film, a documentary, was inspired by the book Road to Heaven, Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter, AKA Red Pine. I remember drinking in this book some years ago but never had a copy on my book shelf. Then, just the other day, I found a copy in our Monastic Alms Box and have it beside me now. I love the photo of the ancient nun Yuan-chao on the front cover. While visiting this nun Bill Porter asked her to to write down the essence of Buddhism on a sheet of calligraphy paper. She ignored his request however two months later the paper arrived in the mail in Taiwan. It bore the words; goodwill, compassion, joy, detachment.Bill Porter:
“Certainly there are hermits who stay in seclusion all their lives, never rejoining society. Some of them are very powerful people. The old nun on the cover of my book is such a person. She was 88 when she died; they cremated her but her heart remained intact. That was a pretty powerful hermit”.
Dharmaflix has Amongst White Clouds listed but there are no reviews, as yet.
A reader in Edmonton sent me this picture today. Too good not to share I thought. Thanks, and thanks to the photographer who ever she or he was.
This is the actual turnoff from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the #1 highway to Calgary.
They had to build the animals (especially the elk) their own crossing because that’s where the natural migration crossing is and after the highway was built there were far too many accidents. It didn’t take the animals long to learn that this was their “road.”
Meanwhile back in the U.K. the toads need to cross the roads.
The ‘Toads on Roads’ campaign is one of Froglife’s most established projects, promoting the plight of toads during migration, recruiting volunteers to help monitor toad crossing sites and working with other organisations to ensure pressure is put on planners and developers to consider local populations of amphibians. “I wouldn’t say it was the most pleasant of jobs. Standing on busy roads on winter nights holding a bucketful of toads.” Life as a Toad Warden.
This is compassion for animals, and amphibians. Bless ’em all.
For the next week or so the monastic community will be spending a lot of time meditating formally in the meditation hall. Postings here will continue with photographs, which were mostly taken within the monastery grounds.
