Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Reflections on an Undivided Life

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I received the follow text in an email this morning that thought it good to share. It is published with the authors permission.

A recent book title spoke to me. The title was An Undivided Life and it asked the questions, what does that mean for you? do you live an undivided life? It sounds lovely, doesn’t it? An undivided life. Exactly what is it then that separates a divided life from an undivided life? Is it that a divided life is full of shoulds and if onlys? Full of how could I do that. and why didn’t I do thus and so? Perhaps it is not that an undivided life is absent of those insistently self denigrating questions, but that an undivided life is full of the willingness to accept those aspects of our self that seem to our mind less than lovely, and recognize that it is those very attributes, unpleasant as they may be for us to look at, that are the open doors through which we can walk to the other side of those habits of speech and behavior.

A colleague told me today that he is really afraid of doing something in the office that I might disapprove of because my reaction when that happens is so overwhelming. And we’re not talking major mistakes here, we’re talking little things, like where you put the teaspoons after you’ve made tea. Where does the need to control come from? Isn’t there room in my personal universe for more than one way to do something? And when I’m no longer there in the office, how will things be done? And when I die, how will things be done then? Any-place is a good place to start, right now is a good time to begin.

Please let me see myself as others see me, let me be as my heart wishes others to be. Please let me step through the mirrored doorway into that open spaciousness (fearlessness?) that allows us all to be a compassionate universe within ourselves, and with and for others.

Here ends my correspondents words.

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Daily Life, Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

The Greatest Teaching of All

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A grand day out.
Dizzy from animated, noisy truck riding, conversations I wander off alone. First nose to nose with deer then a passing glimpse at bear scat. Manzanita berries are on the menu, apparently. Picking my way along. Pass abandoned boat and a pick-up, sans engine and most of everything else. Signs of mining, gold mining I find out later.

Scrub oak and pine, everything dry as dust. Silence, no wind no breeze, blue sky. Rustles in the dry oak leaves. A chipmunk? Squirrel? Who knows. I lay me down. Fall asleep. Wake and wander about. Gaze out past trees to distant forest hills. What a treat! Two or three hours in the wilderness. No particular purpose. No destination. No biting insects! No threat nor fear. No NOTHING.

Then, back to help load the log splitter. We set up an easy rhythm together, she operated the hydraulics, I swung in the next log. A rare chance to work along side novice monks. What a treat! Lunch and amiable chat about deer under the deck, mountain lions and re-roofing plans. Then tea and seniors talk of sewing the kesa, quilting and re-learning balance after hip replacement. All the while work continues.

We go home towing wood and log-splitter. My work companions elderly wet dog in the back and another novice helper beside. We are all dusty-tired, the dog too. Mt. Shasta, almost devoid of snow save for the glaciers, is in view as we weave our way down Strawberry Valley. Which appears again to be dotted with mini slag heaps. I never travel this road without that thought, of slag heaps. They probably reflect a geological event millennia old. Who knows?

A truck passes. Emblazoned on the cab side, Never give up. A split second later the novice in the back seat asks, Have you any advice for us (novices) please Rev. Master Mugo? I pause. No, not really. What IS there to say to these very able, well informed, up-to-the-mark young monks? Err, well Never give up! Never give up on your fellow trainees. Never give up on yourself.

This was a favourite teaching of the late Head of the Order. He meant by it so much. So much that is important in terms of maintaining harmony in the Sangha. As we say, Harmony IS the Sangha Treasure. Thankfully I hit a spot with my truck-inspired teaching. We chatted back and forth on the subject until we were home.

This pair had obviously studied their Taitaikoho (How Junior Priests Must Behave in the Presence of Senior Priests), Eihei-shingi (Dogen’s Monastic Rules). One of the instructions is to always be diligent in the presence of a senior and take the opportunity to ask for teaching. The last rule, number 62, states: For you seniors will always exist; there will always be someone senior to you both when you are a first grade unsui and when you become a Buddha. This is the greatest teaching of all.

Nothing like being out in the wilderness to return home once more to humility. And wonder. One is never so old for that. Monk or not.

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Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Days With My Father

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Days With My Father is an intimate personal journal about the life of a father and son, from the time of the mothers death to that of the father. Together they lived and laughed. There’s a combination of photographs and text put together in a most creative and powerful way. The design is credited to Fashion Buddha. Good job.

The navigation from page to page is somewhat unusual. If you move your mouse to the bottom of each image, you get a clickable strip with takes you to the next image and commentary. Sometimes there is no strip, so just click at the bottom of the page…and see what happens. If you take the cursor to the left side of the page and click you find thumbnail size images of all the photographs.

At the end of the journal there is an opportunity to leave a comment. I’ll do that when I have more time. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Fun too.

Many thanks to Julius W. in London for pointing me to this site.

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Information, Out and About, Overcome Difficulties

Cat Adoption

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Some time ago I posted this.

I’m glad to say that Mitra is enjoying happy times in her adopted home in Florida.

Cat_adoption.jpg

Suzy the other (senior) cat up for adoption crossed the continent in April and is now in Oregon, waiting for just the right home to retire to.

This is for Suzy.

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Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Why Things Are The Way They Are

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Driving down the road, nothing particular about the day. Life had been rough. Within the last couple of years deaths of two people. Too young to die, in her view. Then there had been many years of mother care. Of mother with Alzheimer’s care.

Suddenly, she said, while driving down the road I knew exactly why everything is the way it is. Everything! And then just as quickly the knowing passed. Just like that. She wanted to keep on knowing what she had known however the moment passed and was gone.

I doubt if anything will ever be quite the same again though.

There is no knowing why these moments come to people, and not necessarily to those who follow some kind of conscious spiritual path. It’s not really necessary to know why of course. And what would one do with that knowledge anyway?

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