Commandment 10
You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.
From Times On Line
Being content is a useful reminded, whatever ones endeavours. And contentment is not the same as complacent.
Thanks to my walking companion for pointing me to these commandments. Originally formulated for Christian bloggers however I feel they can apply across the board.
A dear member of the congregation in America is having hip replacement surgery on Thursday. Her immediate sangha sent out a request for Transfer of Merit, not only for the woman but also for all the animals she, day-in-day-out, takes care of. A great deal of goodwill and compassion is being extended all around. I thought to share part of the email. It paints a picture, one that several of you who are involved with animal care and rescue will recognise.
Sam, the diabetic orange cat, will go to a local animal hospital. Emma, deeply fearful/shy black cat, will be at home, hiding. Prince, small black feral cat renunciant, lives in a shed with screened porch and has not gone out to the world for eight years, except for brief before-breakfast-walks. Heathcliff, another feral cat, stops by the ‘cafeteria’ at least once a day. These animals will be fed by a local animal care person, who will also feed the feral cat colony at the downtown car wash where they are usually fed each evening.
Spare a thought….
Miles who is a regular blog reader and congregation member was here on Sunday for the Festival Ceremony. He reminded me of a comment he’d left in January with links to a three part series of short films. Here is his comment and links to the films.
Hope you are well and are having a good winter retreat.
I stumbled upon these films whilst browsing the net – a short but rather beautifully filmed three part documentary on Sojiji in 1959, just a few years before Rev. Master Jiyu arrived there.There’s an unusual and probably very much of-its-day shot of all the novice monks sitting around smoking together – and some very impressive ceremonial.
Great stuff!
In gassho,
Miles
Sojiji Part One, Part Two and Part Three
Thanks Miles for the links. And thank you to what ever good fortune and good luck and hard work and patience that has me connected to the internet at Throssel at a brisk 54.0 Mbps.
As a child I’d puzzled at the three wise monkey statue my friend had and the saying which went with it. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Was it about turning a blind eye? I didn’t think so. And I was right, there is some actual wisdom involved, according to Wikipedia, in that it was probably adapted from a Confucian phrase and brought to Japan via Tendai Buddhism.
It is said that the monkeys in the tiny statues were modelled after snow monkeys who live in the Japanese Alps. In a BBC TV programme we watched last week we saw one tribe of these monkeys soaking in a hot spring. The story is one monkey stumbled upon, or into, the heated water and others caught onto the idea. Gradually the soaking became part of the tribes practice.
Sometimes there is a fourth monkey which depicts do no evil.