The women mentioned in yesterdays posting made it through her medical procedure OK and since the subject of death is on the table here’s more to contemplate.

“Wit, this HBO Films presentation chronicles the personal awakening of a longtime literary scholar* (two-time Oscar-winner Emma Thompson), who learns the importance of simple human kindness when faced with the most daunting of crises: a diagnosis of advanced cancer.”

I think Emma Thompson is wonderful in what ever she does and her part in the film Wit is no exception. One might think that the story of a woman undergoing aggressive treatment for cancer would be a sad one. After watching the film last week I was left both uplifted and stilled. It pointed out that illness, terminal illness, can transform into a gift that helps the heart to walk through the flapping door of death, with equanimity and humility.

*Interestingly the literary scholar portrayed in Wit was an expert on John Donne. His poem on death was skillfully woven into the story, I believe it was Death be not Proud that was quoted. Oh, and while looking around I see this, perhaps the best know of John Donne’s ‘Meditations’.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” (See here for the full work).

I think Donne would be quite at home with Indra’s Net and the Buddhist teaching on interconnectivity and he certainly didn’t shy away from mortality.

A few weeks ago I had an email from a woman who studies with me. The subject line was, Death. This is how she contemplates preparation for death: “I think that living in the moment and welcoming each new experience and letting go of the last is preparation for death. That learning to do that in meditation and being willing to let go helped us get beyond birth and death so that death is just the next step, when the time is right”.

Today the author of the email and I talked on the telephone. Our last contact before she has a potentially life threatening medical procedure. I gave words of support and encouragement; offered my thoughts on the use of the rosary to help keep focused, pointed to faith and reminded her that many people will be offering merit. She quietly said, “Thank you” and I knew there was very little I could or even needed to say. She iswell prepared.

In the opening paragraph of the Shushogi (What is Truly Meant by Training and Enlightenment), Great Master Dogen speaks about the necessity of understanding birth and death completely and of letting go, of going beyond the opposites. The paragraph ends with, “The understanding of the above breaks the chains that bind one to birth and death therefore this problem, which is the greatest in all Buddhism, must be completely understood”.

The chain referred to is the chain of dependent origination. Simply put, this is a description of how beings remain bound within the cycle of birth and death. There are twelve links in the chain of dependent origination and another twelve that describe how the cycle ceases.

So, there is nothing like having impermanence come into ones life for focusing on basic practice and the reasons for training in the Way.

All Merit offered for those who sit in waiting rooms and for those whose life may hang in the balance.

I’ll not pause too long to talk as I am about to eat breakfast before leave for the airport to return to Edmonton. It has been a good week; taking Refuge with fellow monks of our Order, encountering a ten year old monk and his guardian practicing within the Tibetian tradition, visiting spring in Vancouver, and receiving a variety of offerings from several members of the congregation. Very many thanks to all for making me so welcomed. Visiting the temple dedicated to Kanzeon, Bodhisattva of Compassion, was a highlight of my stay.

In the ceremony we do in our tradition for the Buddh’s Birth in May we have a miniature version of what is depicted here. As the celebrant pours sweet tea over the baby Buddha’s head with a ladle there is a verse: “Nine Dragons came forth to bathe the Blessed One”. At that point in the ceremony a novice, discreetly poised behind the altar, plugs in the power for the pump which then continuously pours water over the statue. Many is the time I have crouched anxiously waiting for the moment to plug in the pump praying everything will work. Mostly it did. (There is spiritual teaching in this however I don’t have the time to go into that now, maybe another time.)

Last Sunday we, the monks at Lions Gate Buddhist Priory where I have been staying for the last week, went to pay our respects at the Kuan Yin Temple in Richmond, BC. It is said to be “The most exquisite example of Chinese palatal architecture in North America”. It certainly is big! The web site of The International Buddhist Society is well worth a visit as there are more photographs of the temple as well as Buddhist teaching.

While we were taking a break from our tour a couple of nuns appeared briskly from around a corner and we fell into greeting bows followed by general chat. There are thirty nuns living in the temple and as far as I could tell a number of them were there as it was too cold down in there temple in New Mexico during the winter. As we were speaking the Abbot, Venerable Guan Cheng, emerged from the meditation hall with a flock of devotees. He’d been giving the last of a series of lectures and after several group photos on the steps of the hall he came over to say hi. We spoke briefly and then took him up on his invitation to join in celebratory sweet snacks in the dining room along with all of the devotees. The nuns were glad to inform us that they had made the cheese cake in the temple. It was good.

I know of people who read this blog who also write one. I came across this article in a blog written by an ER nurse in Australia. Anyway I was brought up a bit short reading it and the material pointed to within the article. It helped me to remember to maintain a sense of perspective in the midst of the rush to write and publish. Yes, and the rush of realizing people read it too!

The web site, Impacted Nurse, is interesting even for the lay observer, for medical people I could see it as really supportive. It also travels with a smile on it’s face. And that is how I’ll be traveling to-day, weather conditions permitting!

Here is a six year old expressing an understanding; frustrated desire leads to anger which can lead to ‘bad words’. The implication being that bad words are not ‘good’. Well done little one.

I’ll be in flight to Vancouver tomorrow afternoon. They do say that it is spring over there, while here we are entering a late winter.