Progress with the new Jademountains site is going ahead apace. It will however take me some time to learn how to ‘drive’ the new behind-the-scenes machinery. Nothing is hurting for Jade being off-line so there is no rush to open up the doors before all is ready.
Being away from the monastery and my usual daily schedule provides me with an opportunity to contemplate the direction I’d like to take in terms of my on-line activities. It’s likely I’ll continue to write chat-over-a-cup-of-tea style and perhaps there will be more overt Buddhist teaching as well.
Now traveling down through England on the east coast line. Somehow I’ve been seated in the First Class section of the train and nobody wants to move me. Tea madam? I’m asked. Yes, with milk please, I reply. How much will that be? Oh that’s complimentary, as is the Wifi connection to the Internet. Uh! here comes the tea trolley again.
Thinking about it the nomination of Movingmountains for an ‘award’, as mentioned yesterday, is complimentary in the other meaning of the word. Not something to get all worked up about of course however it is helpful to know the Buddhist blogger community thinks what is written here is worth looking at.
I only found out about this nomination by accident while I was poking about this evening trying to see if I could still login to Technorati and a couple of other sites I’m signed up with.
Here is how I describe Moving Mountains on Technorati for your interest: Spiritual encouragement to walk the every-day Way of the Buddha’s and Ancestors within Soto Zen as practiced within the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Offered by Mugo, a female priest in good standing within the OBC.
I’ll be on the train heading south tomorrow and may not be able to post until Thursday or Friday. In the mean time I think it is worth taking a look at the sites that have been nominated in other categories.
When I typed in a recent blog entry hose instead of host, bogging instead of blogging I knew my brain was close to the edge of optimal functioning. When I hear today that I’d mained (there I go again) a package of valuable items addressed with just a name and a neighbourhood I know for sure my brain is spent, but not completely. (I’ll be taking a break during March BTW.)
Thankfully the wonderful G.P.O., the Royal Mail, took up the challenge and delivered my package. Is that not a minor miracle of modern life? It proves that organizations can be intelligent and responsive in ways one might think have been lost in the rush. My package went into the slow lane and reached it’s destination non the less. Is there something to be learnt here?
Meditation may not be for you. It is boring, it is difficult, it is confronting. But it is also a few other things, things that I will leave up to you to experience. Yes life is short, but it is deep.
For many people physical pain is ever present in their lives, it is something they feel they could well live without. However there are those who have learnt not only how to live with pain but find it has helped them to deepen their practice. Recently a book, Turning Suffering Inside OutA Zen approach to living with physical and emotional pain, came into my hands. It’s written by a woman who knows what she is talking about, she is also a teacher of Buddhism connected to the San Francisco Zen Center. Here between the covers can be found practical advice and accessible Buddhist teaching for all. I’ve made a note to read it all the way through. In the mean time here is a taste.
Darlene became bedridden with rheumatoid arthritis gradually needing more and more help with basic daily life activities such as cleaning, doing laundry and washing her hair.
“At first, my conscious life was all pain. Acknowledging the pain and its power eventually allowed me to explore my body fully and find there actually were experiences in my body beside the pain–here is pain, here is bending, here is breath, here is movement, here is sun warming, here is unbearable fire, here is tightness–something different where ever I looked….I kept telling myself this must be the world of babies and animals. Everything is fresh and fascinating.”
Darlene Cohen writes about pain in a recent edition of the magazine Buddhadharma, as does Bhikkhu Bodhi and others.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
