Monthly Archives: February 2009

Daily Life, Information, Teachings

Gratitude Knows No Bound

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Gratitude.

An emotion? A thought? An action? An attitude of mind? An expression shouted out (and inwardly) covering the great earth?

Probably all of the above and more. And the more is the moving on, or in and out, of the above.

It is said that the Great Earth is the foundation of gratitude and refers to the fundamental ground of Everything. That’s a ‘great’ larger than normal conceptions. Posting April 5th, 2005 – Green Mountains are Forever Walking.

Gratitude, as the expression goes, knows no bound. No wonder expressing gratitude is the simple every-day work of getting on and doing the best one can, in every-day circumstance. And that is not dependent on feeling/thinking/being grateful. Living Buddhism is bigger than that.

Moved to write this in response to an engaging phone call this morning and to an email from somebody letting me know a donation had been made to Jade Mountains through Every-Click.

BTW. I’ve updated the donation page recently. If you plan to make a donation via Every-Click please take a look. Your offerings cover the great earth.

Films/Books

Anne Frank’s Diary

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On this clear chill night we watched the chilling story of Anne Frank as told through her diary. There is a DVD of this five part BBC series depicting the two years Anne, her family and several others, spend hiding in an attic in Amsterdam during the WW2. All but Anne’s father perished after the hide-away was discovered, just before the end of the war. The father died in 1980.

How true Daddy’s words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.
Anne Frank

Anne’s diary is an incredible witness to the spirit of youthfulness, rising up in the face of adversity.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Blessings In Disguise

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If anybody achieves at least endurance of misery,
she has already accomplished an almost superhuman task.
Carl Jung

My mind goes out this evening to those who have a long term disability. Who live with this day in and day out. Some, in the midst of pain, come to live in steady gratitude. I’d wish that for all.

What may appear at first to be a life changing truely terrible turn of events may, in time, turns out to be a life blessing, and vice versa. Here is a classic Vedic story which illustrates the point.

A wise man had two things in life that he treasured–his son and his pony. One day, his son had left the gate to the corral open and the pony escaped. His neighbours, hearing that he had lost his prized possession, came to offer their condolences, to which he responded, “We’ll see.”

The next day the pony returned, and following it right into his corral were three beautiful wild horses. When the neighbours heard of this fortuitous turn of events, they paid him another visit to congratulate him on his good fortune. Again, he responded, “We’ll see.”

The following day, his son decided to try and ride one of the new horses, but on his first attempt was thrown to the ground, breaking his leg. Again, rather than judging the event, the wise man considered the situation with patience and acceptance.

Sure enough, the next day the army came to town and rounded up every able-bodied young man to fight a battle. Because of his injury, the son was left behind.

Information, Teachings

Master Sheng Yen

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The Venerable Master Sheng Yen died yesterday at Dharma Drum Mountain complex in Taiwan.

Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no “I.”
Life and death, thus cast aside.

by Venerable Master Sheng Yen

Several years ago the venerable one came to Throssel and talked with the monks. Sadly I was away at the time. I admire him and his teaching greatly and offer my thoughts for those in East Asia and in the West who continue his lineage.

Uncategorised

Still Snow

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Snow_cleared_in_the_lane1.jpg

The snow is losing it’s wonderment, and with more on the way tonight and more shovelling tomorrow, it’s becoming an activity and less something to point a camera at.

Yes and still is how it is amidst the activity. Still snow? An almost hallowed stillness. A blue peacefulness. There’s just something about snow which overtakes everything else. Shovelling or not I love the stuff.

Above in the sky, Saturn is ablaze. It is SO bright in the night sky at the moment and apparently we’ll not be seeing it quite like this for another seventeen years!

Looking around for an inspiring verse to offer and I spot this one above my computer monitor:

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!

Some will recognize this verse as the Invocation for the Removal of Disasters. A verse of uplift. It is sometimes recited for those who are about to undertake a journey. Even a journey along an icy path.