Playing fast and loose with facts, basic mistakes, typos, blunders, not proof reading carefully enough, rarely editing, forgetting to spell check…yep! Not proud of it and I can hold my hand up to all of the above, as well as (unknowingly) throwing in some American English phrasing, and spellings too.

I’m sorry if those of you, and I know you are out there, who actually write for a living, or have done so in the past, or who have a passion for the English Language (one of my monastic walking companions for example), have your powers of compassion regularly tested while reading here. Thank you for returning for the words, or what lies behind the words. And what ever words one might use to describe that, it’s what I regard as the most important aspect of Jade. AND I love the written word and would wish to do better at writing it.

Thanks to Gary for pointing out the typo in a name and to Angie for sending in the correct details about the photograph posted yesterday. Return here especially if you are a keen hiker, or runner.

I’ve tagged this post Teaching because it’s important to note ones mistakes, accept them, (refrain from mentally beating oneself up about them) and then do ones best to take greater care. AND it’s important to remember that practice/practise is not a path to a created perfection.

We celebrated the Festival Ceremony for Great Master Bodhidharma this morning. On these occasions we sing a fairly long litany in which the fundamental teachings of the Bodhisattva we are remembering are described. The following quote comes at the end of The Litany of Bodhidharma Bodhisattva, on page six. And that’s the shortened version. The line that stood out was the one about why stay troubled….and that what we have been singing is just the barest outline of the teachings!

Go beyond the mundane
And attest to That which is saintly.
It is before your very eyes,
Not off in the distance.
Awakening is but an instant away;
Why stay troubled until your hair has turned grey?
Would that I had explained for you the subtle mysteries
of the gate to the Dharma in depth
Rather than discussed the mind in barest outline,
detailing but such a scant portion of the reason for which we train.

Some of you may be familiar with the translation of The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, translated by Red Pine (North Point Press, 1987). Here are some quotes from that translation.

If you should follow the above link do take care to avoid mental gymnastics, if you tend towards that activity. Teachings speak to the depths and it is there one needs to listen and read.

Threads of a story overheard at a community meal. They got swept away…heavy rain…swept along and went down the cundie (land drain) under the road. They found a couple by the river….took a long time…several were in the river down stream…they were all found eventually. Such excitement for the little fluff balls many of us are watching as we take our walks up the road. But then…goose died…got caught in the grill the ducklings goslings had sailed through…nobody knew…didn’t find her until it was too late… Stories of animal rescue cut to the gut. Moving stories. There is something really basic about animals lost and then found. And it’s not all happy endings either.

The ducklings goslings several weeks after there adventure down to the river, and back.

And along with lost and found creatures there is the horror of animal abuse….

See this letter sent to Kentucky Fried Chicken management by Thich Nhat Hanh. It desciribes unpleasant practices with chickens so be warned.

Thanks to Angie for the link.

And as I write about these creatures children, lost and found, used and abused, come very much to mind. All must be gathered into our hearts, including those who know not what they do.

The highest mountains are the abode of the lions;
In the deepest waters the dragons dwell.

Quote on the Lions Gate Buddhist Priory website where there is a new booklet available for download.

I once mentioned to my Master that I’d spent some time sitting on top of a Tor on Dartmoor in the South West of England while over visiting my parents. She said quietly, You like high places don’t you Mugo. I smiled in recognition, although I couldn’t explain in words what the smile was about.

In the heights there is depth and in the depths there are dragons. In one of our scriptures, Dogen in Rules for Meditation writes: O sincere trainees, do not doubt the true dragon, do not spend so much time in rubbing only a part of the elephant;…

This can be seen as a call to not dwell overly long anywhere, heights or depths. And especially not dwell in comfortable places!

Earlier in the afore mentioned scripture there is this, If you become thus utterly free you will be as the water wherein the dragon dwells or as the mountain whereon the tiger roams.

This is for John, in gratitude.