Word Wednesday: lesser know words, pointing to familiar themes, relevant to spiritual practice. Resipiscence is a corker!
Resipiscence
Noun: recognition of past mistakes and desire to do better in future.
The word is derived from Latin resipiscere which means ‘to recover one’s senses’.
From Foyle’s Philavery, A treasury of unusual words.
This looks like a fine sentiment, or ‘movement of the heart’, for those following a spiritual path.
Quite by chance, on Monday, I saw a chap briefly who I’d met at Throssel before. It was a significant meeting back then since he’d been helping an isolated member I have responsibility for. Turns out he’d been here all week-end, and I didn’t know. That sometimes happens since guests are generally on retreat and the monks help that process by not engaging people in casual conversation. Which means we are not looking about to see who’s here, of course.
If you plan to come on retreat, or to stay, and would like to say hi please drop me a line before you get here. Or say something the the Guest Department monks. That way I can make sure to bump into you at an appropriate moment. It’s always a pleasure and a joy.
Yes, it was a happy meeting on Monday. Not only for seeing a familiar face but for being reminded that he was, and still is a Jade reader! And because our on-line conversation, via the comments section, back some time last year was connected with death I promised to mention the name of a book I find most helpful. And the book is: There’s More to Dying than Death, Lama Shenpen Hookham.
Monday’s meeting was just one more nudge to get more Bodhi Leaf pins/badges made. There are more of you out there gazing at the screen than I had thought. And one more old friend tells me, via email, he will be checking in again. Welcome back! Glad you’re alive.
Walking up the lane after morning service this morning. Somebody before me had drawn a long arrow and then a question mark at the top in the light dusting of snow. In answer I drew an eight spoked wheel with two arrows around it’s circumference indicating the Turning of the Wheel of the Law in a clockwise direction. Then I drew another arrow and question mark, hoping others might carry on the conversation. It was about direction I suppose. About moving, about moving on. About right action. Clever stuff! I walked on.
By chance I turned and saw a monk walking right through the middle of the conversation! Hay! You’ve just walked over my handy work! I shouted. Oh, was that YOU? She shouted back. (We were at a distance from each other). YES! But you know, the moment had passed. The fun had been had and the potential for more, for others, had passed. You just can’t get special about such things. Snow brings out playfulness and that’s for sure.
We are expecting heavy snow falls this week.
This image speaks of faith. The immediacy of faith, in this very moment. The morning star was just what was there, it’s not gone away.
We celebrate the Buddha’s Enlightenment tomorrow.
As one of my hosts for the evening loads the dishwasher I ask. What is Faith? And then I started to type.
Faith is believing that everything is OK. That’s despite the human wish for things to be a certain way. Safe. Secure. It’s got nothing to do with that. It’s not just believing that everything will be alright, but that it is right at this moment. It’s not magic, that’s for sure, and it doesn’t mean that everything will turn out the way this human being wishes. Trust and faith are, what’s the word, intrinsically linked. I don’t think you can have one without the other, but that’s just a personal opinion. Without faith and trust life is, well, life is just a burden. I think that about covers it on a short basis. I guess people have written treatise on faith and trust but it isn’t an intellectual thing. It is absolutely fundamental to practice. The thing I have found, again and again, is that when I cease to have faith and to trust it all goes, to use Kate’s expression, to pigs and whistles!
OK Kate (my other host). What say you on this subject?
Faith has got to do with knowing there is something more than me. And that there is a point to being alive. Sometimes though doubt gets in the way. And then there is trust that it is all OK. Then you just get on with it I suppose. Get on with the next thing, with life.
Thankyou both, for your wisdom and hospitality. I’ll be back to Throssel by Friday afternoon.