Monthly Archives: March 2011

Daily Life

The Wrong Kind of Electricity – Life in Japan

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Iain at Little House In The Paddy blog has been writing about Japan. In particular about electricity. In short the country generates two types and it can’t be shared from one region to another. Electricity is a hot topic at the moment since there isn’t enough. Read and weep!

….Japan has ended up with two completely different electricity distribution systems. In the east we have 110V 50Hertz and in the west they have 110V 60 hertz. In Tokyo station the shinkansen arrive from the north and the west on adjacent platforms but there is no connecting track because neither can run on the other power system.

I’ll not complain about a power outage again. Complaining is non productive. And productive of more complaining!

Teachings

Dark And Light Together

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One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.

Carl Jung

What is it to make the darkness conscious? Not a procedure I think. Today discomfort, disturbance, emotion. All and more. The world trembles. Tosses and turns this way and that. There is no avoiding the shock waves. We, each of us, absorb the reverberations. All the time. I believe we cannot be anything other than conscious in this way. Dark and light. Together.

Out and About

Quake

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Everything went just a little bit crazy today didn’t it. For me the day started early with news from Japan in an email sent soon after the quake. We are OK. Then most of the day driving around North Yorkshire on an outing, in heavy rain. I hardly wanted to get out of the car. In the case of Ribblehead Viaduct, I didn’t.

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Through the windscreen
Ribblehead_Viaduct1.jpg

This is for all those known and unknown who have been swept up by the massive earthquake in Japan and the tidal wave that followed.

Daily Life

Empty Cloud – Xu Yun

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This week-end a number of people who train within this tradition converged on the village where I am staying. We all spent time walking/talking/sitting/eating and generally spending time training together. It has been good for me to get out and walk and thankfully the weather was increasingly good as the week-end progressed.

One woman who originates from Hong Kong gave me a credit card sized photograph of Xu Yun a renowned Chinese Zen Master. Turns out she had received the Precepts from one of his disciples. Xu Yun life spanned several major upheavals in China including the cultural revolution and was several times beaten and left for dead. He just kept on surviving against the odds. His autobiography, Empty Cloud is a roller coaster ride which, if you can get hold of a copy, is worth reading.

I’ve a copy of Empty Cloud beside me now. It is opened at page 95. I’d opened the book at random looking for material to talk about at a meditation group meeting tonight. The chapters title is The Jade Buddha and Xu Yun is now 77 years old (1916/17). He lived to reach the age of 120! So his life was only a little over half lived. What was his training at this time?

That’s the question. What is it good for me to do or not do? Apparently he was on a journey to bring a Jade Buddha from Burma I think. He refers to the South Seas. He visited Rangoon on the way and paid reverence at the Great Golden Pagoda (the Shwedagon) then expounded the sutras and took off for Singapore. Where things went bad. We were all held as detainees, tied up and beaten. We were then left out in the sun and not allowed to move; if we moved, we were beaten again. We were not allowed food or drink, nor were we allowed to relieve ourselves. This went on from six in the morning until eight at night. Eventually a disciple of his came to rescue the group of six monks so detained.

We all live unique lives. Xu Yun was a humble person regarding himself and his life as no big deal. He just got on with what his training was, as it presented there and then. What other choice do we have?

Daily Life, Teachings

An Unconventional Adventure

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We all travel within conventions of one kind and another and they are, I’d say, essential for basic harmony. There are ceremonial conventions and forms that I follow when performing say weddings, memorials, baby namings, funerals. They are all written down and compiled into a thick book.

We are taught the meaning behind the forms too, the spiritual meaning. Each of us appreciates and conveys meaning in quite individual ways, everybody does that. The ceremonial forms point to, point out, the fundamental teachings of our tradition. So when an opportunity came to officiate at the cremation of my elderly friend at the start of the week I was gladly able to be flexible with the form of such a ceremony. It did feel unconventional and it was an adventure! Perhaps that’s how it is when one steps out of being bound by conventions. While being guided by them as a frame work one can expand and respond to the particular circumstance to convey the essential matter in accessible ways.

Well that’s life really. An unconventional adventure? We know the forms of our world and immediate community and then we venture to be fluid with how we are within them. The whole day was a most enjoyable time. That’s being with and meeting people from my teens as well as meeting their teen and twenty/thirty somethings off spring. Now THAT was a treat. A new bright eyed generation. They are an inspiration.