Category Archives: Teachings

Teachings

Talking His Truth

5 Comments

home_and_livin1.jpg
Wisdom At Walmart

There are always troubles. Sometimes big and sometimes little. We travel through life unstained. There is something at our center that isn’t troubled by what passes by us. That truth is true for all of us. We are all connected through the universality of mankind.
Spoken by Harold, the man at Walmart whose job it is to greet shoppers as they enter the store. Met him this day.

Three of us stood spell bound as this most humble of men quietly sat and talked to us. As we left I sat down on the bench beside him and thanked him for his wisdom. Joined by my traveling companions we said good by and put our hands together in what we call ‘gassho’, a gesture of recognition and gratitude. He did the same. He said ‘God Bless’, I said ‘God Bless’ and then we walked over to the car, climbed in and headed to Portland Priory.

We are indebted to the Harolds of this world. People who talk their truth with humility and with no intention to teach or enlighten. He just seemed to be happy to talk.

Thanks to my traveling companions for helping to remember what was said. It is but the gist of what took place.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Photo/Poem Series, Teachings

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

2 Comments

Winter_Lake_Alberta.jpg
Lake in Alberta

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Thanks to the Reverend who introduced me to this poem this evening.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Teachings

Speak Of Trees – That Subtle Something

2 Comments

Mt_Shasta_with_trees1.jpg
Trees under Mount Shasta

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon
our hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that
emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews
a weary spirit.
– Robert Louis Stevenson

Here starts Tree Fortnight – two weeks of pictures with poems and quotes about our trusty friend, the tree.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

The Power of Repetition

6 Comments

Morning Service. That’s a ceremony. It happens after morning meditation. It happens every day of the year. And it is more or less the same, every single day of the year. For people new to our practice who maybe come for an introductory retreat ceremonial can be a bit of a challenge. It was for me when I first started going to Throssel as a lay woman.

To cut a potentially long post short the answer to the challenge is simple. Firstly one is not required to adopt a particular attitude of mind, or feel a certain way while taking part in a ceremony. For example it is not a requirement to be devotional while singing or grateful when bowing or feel wonderful or uplifted. Or even like it. Morning service, any ceremony, is an overtly religious activity within which one sits still and acts in concert with others. Singing, bowing, chanting, turning, sitting, standing. Doing the best one can.

As with participating in overtly religious activities such as morning service so it is with seemingly mundane daily activities. The inner aspect or quality of mind (sitting still) is exactly the same what ever is happening. That quality of mind is not a practice or quality as such it is simply our True Nature which does not come or go, nor does it need perfecting. The deeper challenge of ceremonial (or whatever) is to accept that. Deeply. Trouble is we imagine there is something lost to find and something broken to fix or improve upon. Tah!

There is a certain something in repetition, a blessing really, that propels one through to acceptance. You could call that faith I guess.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email