Bluebells in hedgerow. Nature does it so well!
Not for the first time I inwardly nodded with approval. Over the past few years, slowly but surely, a once crumbling building is being restored to a serviceable state. There is clearly a quality job being done. As I walked on it occurred to me that I might have been disapproving of this project. Interestingly I realized that it didn’t matter in the slightest what I thought! Thoughts are not the thing. How easy it can be to get caught up in ones own thoughts. To approve of approving or disapprove of disapproving! Uh! What a mine field, thankfully this time just seen from the edge of the field.

I walked on up the lane where life showed itself in that uplifting way which brings lightness to the step. A bird on a branch sings for you alone. A wildflower shows itself in its utter simplicity. An industrious Thrush pecks for worms. Lambs charm. The way only new lambs can.

Perhaps my regular steps past the builders work is much like being ignited by bird song, wild flowers and sunlight shafting through branches. I appreciate the beautiful brick work and the little architectural details emerging from the rubble. Brings a lightness to my step, now I think about it.

So what am I getting at here? Perhaps a small reminder to walk with a lighter step inwardly and find inward compassion when judgmentalism has us walk with heavy step.

As we are within so we are with others.

Woodland garden in spring – Black Forest.

What is of all things most yielding
Can overcome that which is most hard,
Being substanceless, it can enter in
even where there is no crevice.
That is how I know the value
of action which is actionless.

But that there can be teaching without words,
Value in action which is actionless
Few indeed can understand.

Lao Tzu (6th century B:C:)

Think about it!

Just came across this thought provoking post on Dangerous Harvest.

Thanks for linking to JM Nathen. I am back on-line again, on a borrowed computer. Having only a limited window of access is going to be a good thing I,m thinking.

Here is a video of Philip Gould pondering his impending death. Notice the Buddha and several elephants on the mantelpiece.

Thanks to Angie for the link to this rather interesting interview. Philip Gould died in November last year.

When you are old and infirm you are put in a bed with gates. They are there for the safety of the resident, and for carers peace of mind. The gates will be opened when it is time to move, or be moved. Opened by those whose job it is to do that. Here is an extract from an essay written by a chap who reads here. A touching story about life in a gated bed.

I woke Norbert and told him we had to go downstairs for a test. His bones, laden with years, stretched a good length of the bed and looked heavy as lead. The notes said one-person transfer, but I had my doubts.

How Fast Do Toenails Grow

Gates are often used both metaphorically and actually in Buddhism. They symbolize, among other things, that the teachings of Buddhism are offered freely. All that is required or needed is to enter. The gates of the Dharma stand open wide, always.

The second ceremony of the Ten Precepts Meeting is Opening The Gates of The Precepts. The teaching of this ceremony, a time when the Precepts are read out aloud, is that the sense of hearing is fundamental and that hearing the teaching, the Precepts, brings one to the opened gate. The next ceremony during the week is when a formal commitment to keeping the Precepts is made. At this ceremony, called Lay Ordination, a small kesa is given as well as a certificate. Each ceremony is the enactment of steps in practice, taken many times a day. Making the formal commitment at Lay Ordination is stepping through the gate. That’s the step we all take every day of the year, Buddhist or no. It is always time for us to step through those gates – representing commitment to active engagement with our lives. Now.

For those living in a gated bed, the elderly and infirm. Life, every move one takes is in slow motion. By the time one gets to Norberts age one would hope to know that, what ever the external circumstances are, the gates are indeed open. It sounds like Norbert knows that. He is free to be himself without pretence. Not much covered up. Nothing hidden.