Monthly Archives: May 2009

Daily Life, Teachings

Appreciate What Is Now

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Wharfe Wood

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View from Wharfe Wood (possibly) not looking towards the River Wharfe – Yorkshire! See Angie’s footnote below

I so rarely listen to music however as I upload these photos I’m checking some uploaded music files. Cue music – Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, OP. 46 1 MORNING MOOD. Beautiful! As is our countryside in Britan at this time of year. Any time of the year.

I do hope that, in the midst of our urnestness about the enviornment, we don’t loose the simple wonder of what is now.

Thanks to Angie for the photographs.

Notes from Angie added by Mugo on 26th May 09.

The river in this area is the Ribble. The Wharfe is further over and north of here as well. The area I photographed is in Ribblesdale. I don’t think the view was looking towards a river actually but across to Pen y Ghent and Ingleborough – two of the three peaks which people regularly climb and sometimes run up and down all three in a day.
Wharfe is a tiny hamlet near Austwick and Wharfe wood is near there but not next to it.

Teachings

Teachings of Bodhidharma Bodhisattva – Festival Ceremony Day

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We celebrated the Festival Ceremony for Great Master Bodhidharma this morning. On these occasions we sing a fairly long litany in which the fundamental teachings of the Bodhisattva we are remembering are described. The following quote comes at the end of The Litany of Bodhidharma Bodhisattva, on page six. And that’s the shortened version. The line that stood out was the one about why stay troubled….and that what we have been singing is just the barest outline of the teachings!

Go beyond the mundane
And attest to That which is saintly.
It is before your very eyes,
Not off in the distance.
Awakening is but an instant away;
Why stay troubled until your hair has turned grey?
Would that I had explained for you the subtle mysteries
of the gate to the Dharma in depth
Rather than discussed the mind in barest outline,
detailing but such a scant portion of the reason for which we train.

Some of you may be familiar with the translation of The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, translated by Red Pine (North Point Press, 1987). Here are some quotes from that translation.

If you should follow the above link do take care to avoid mental gymnastics, if you tend towards that activity. Teachings speak to the depths and it is there one needs to listen and read.

Curiosities

Happy Days in The Duckling World

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A dozen ducklings, with mother, on a ledge above the entrance to an office building. Mother flaps down to the pavement and ducklings must follow her. A banker from the office building catches each one of them and then the little family is escorted to the nearest pond. Looks like there was even a police escort! Happy days in the animal rescue world.

Thanks to Ian for the link left in the comments section. Unfortunately the link disappeared from the comment he left. My link points to another version of this story aired originally on US news programs.

Teachings

Moving Stories

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Threads of a story overheard at a community meal. They got swept away…heavy rain…swept along and went down the cundie (land drain) under the road. They found a couple by the river….took a long time…several were in the river down stream…they were all found eventually. Such excitement for the little fluff balls many of us are watching as we take our walks up the road. But then…goose died…got caught in the grill the ducklings goslings had sailed through…nobody knew…didn’t find her until it was too late… Stories of animal rescue cut to the gut. Moving stories. There is something really basic about animals lost and then found. And it’s not all happy endings either.

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The ducklings goslings several weeks after there adventure down to the river, and back.

And along with lost and found creatures there is the horror of animal abuse….

See this letter sent to Kentucky Fried Chicken management by Thich Nhat Hanh. It desciribes unpleasant practices with chickens so be warned.

Thanks to Angie for the link.

And as I write about these creatures children, lost and found, used and abused, come very much to mind. All must be gathered into our hearts, including those who know not what they do.

Uncategorised

Honest Self Reflection

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I received this email some weeks ago from a chap who received the Precepts here at Throssel this year. He is living with ME/CFS and we have been in touch for a couple of years. As you will see at the end of the note below he offers himself as a resource for those who also live with ME/CFS.

Considering the time this was written and probably the level of fatigue, I read this message, and I hope you do too, with buckets full of compassion. I’m publishing the letter, with permission, because it is an example of honest self reflection. And an expression of generosity.

After midnight….

Dear Rev. Mugo,

Hope all is well.

Sleep seems to be avoiding me tonight LOL. A visit to Leeds ME/CFS centre and business meetings this week aren’t a help but may be saying this will help…

I’ve got some thoughts on compassion that seem to be probing me at the moment. As my awareness of things and myself slowly grows I seem to, at times, become aware of what I feel is a distinct lack of compassion for others. The phrase ‘not bearing fools gladly’ springs to mind as being appropriate. I guess atleast the good thing is that I’m aware of this and uncomfortable with it?

At times I just feel I haven’t got the time or patience for what I perceive as peoples inability to face their fears and make the choices that I, in my great wisdom think they need to make! Don’t get me wrong I’m not telling people what I think they should do necessarily, but I feel an exasperation to tell them to just get on with it, as I’m sure you might when I witter on.

I think I’m coming from a point of ego here; in that I feel that I have had to go through some tough times and make some tough choices and have tried to just get on with it and they should just get on with it too instead of off loading/moaning without (what I see as) the intention to move on. Ironically, I also know that just getting on with it has often been and still is my down fall!

Anyway, as you’ve said in the past that you’ve happened to be in contact with people with ME/CFS, and I suppose still are ;o) I’d like to offer myself as some one that people could contact, via email initially, in a way that would hopefully be of mutual benefit in sharing experiences be it relating physical, psychological or spiritual aspects of ME/CFS. This is bearing in mind and being clear that I have no qualification other than that of being through the mill of clinical assessments, medications, work issues, exploring ways to recovery, and trying to balance all things that are life day to day.

If can offer help to anyone, I’d like to do so.

In gassho, Kevin

Dear Kevin,
I can’t remember what I said when I replied to this letter and now time has gone on I’d probably respond differently. As I say this is an honest self reflection, and very highly coloured by the physical and mental condition you were in at the time. You would appreciate and understand this I’m sure. All the same there is obviously something there to look at and reflect on. It may not be what you think though.

My only thought this evening is to encourage you to look up while at the same time sink through the world that is ‘your life’. There waiting in the background is your home, return there often.