Category Archives: Teachings

Up For Adoption

July 9, 2008 Mugo Leave a comment

Today I wrote the following in an email to a sangha friend. She is readying herself to part with her dearly beloved cat companion. Life circumstances have configured in such a way that having the cat adopted is the only real option. They have been together for many years and the parting, like any parting, is heart wrenching.

Hang in there re the cat adoption. If you would like to write about the whole business please do. I ask that because I’m starting to publish material from readers. You have a way with words and letting go of a cat for adoption, or animal of any species for any reason, is a major life event. I still think of my pony who had to go and live at a riding stable when I left home. And I wonder if he is alive or not, probably not. I wonder where is he buried and how did he die, I’ll never know? I still don’t like to think of him as dead even now. As a matter of fact I had a dream about a gray pony last night and we were having a fine old time getting to know each other. My pony was gray.
I guess our animal friends never leave us and yet all relationships must end, sooner or later.

In gassho,
Mugo

The email has been slightly edited and additions have been made.
For those who adopt, are adopted or will adopt in the future. Animal or human.

Films/Books, Information, Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Innovation – Recognition – Ambition

July 7, 2008 Mugo 5 Comments

The O.B.C. web site now has a link to Jade Mountains. This means Jade has joined the ranks of the officially recognized order temples and meditation groups listed within the International section of our website. It is the first weblog maintained by a monk of our Order to be recognized. Maybe it will be the first of many…

For an individual to have a personal website, not to mention a weblog, is a departure from the norm within my organization. So I’m especially grateful for the patience and the huge measures of tolerance extended towards my on-line efforts during the past five years.

Innovating within an organization is a testing business. A few months back I stumbled upon a great book called, The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki. You might think this book is all about how to start a for-profit company, not so. Innovating within for-profit and non profit organizations are equally addressed.

Guy Kawasaki has a blog, How to Change the World and Alltops a news feed site. Jade is listed in the Religion section.

And Zen Master Dogen has a lot to say about getting caught up in fame and gain, he also has a lot to say about giving expression and that need not be driven by ambition.

Information, Teachings

Jade Mountain Origins

July 6, 2008 Mugo Leave a comment

Helmut and Mugo in the garden in Idaho 4th July
Jade Mountains was started originally in 2003 and the first posting was written in the cabin where I’m staying at the moment. Earlier in 2003 I met Helmut, who I’ve know for quite a number of years, he greeted me saying, Hi Jade Mountain, good to see you! He knew about monks going by the name of their temple, which in turn is usually named after a nearby mountain.

Helmut’s greeting probably influenced me to choose the name Jade Mountains for my website, which is a reference back to my temple, as was, Jade Mountain Buddha Hall, a 35 foot trailer in Cornwall. The trailer needed a name and that’s what I came up with. Hover your cursor over the About tab at the top of this page and you will find a bit of website history. Incidentally, there are no mountains in Cornwall however there is St. Michael’s Mount near Penzance and I like to think that is the mountain linked to Jade Mountain Buddha Hall.

The young chap who has walked beside me during and after he transported all the Moving Mountains content into the original Jade Mountain sent an email with an update on site use statistics. I’ve nothing to compare them with however the numbers do seem to be getting larger over the months after the transition in early April.

I hope all is well. I thought you might be interested in an overview of the blog’s performance over the past few months:

Unique Visitors
April 1,187
May 1,632
June 2,079

Visits
April 3,706
May 4,876
June 5,950

Page Views
April 35,118
May 26,714
June 44,124

This means that in June 2,079 people visited the site 5,950 times (a little more than twice each) and looked at a total of 44,124 pages. The trend is consistently upward which means the technical bits are doing their job in promoting the site…. Your total page views for 2008 are around 120,000.

Thanks John and it was good to chat on the telephone today. Perhaps there will be a chance to post a photograph of you and me while I’m in North America. Oh, and Happy Birthday on August 9th when you transition to being a young(ish) chap! As it happens that will be the day the overall winner of the Shed of the Year results will be published.

There is something to be said about the flow of cause and effect in connection with the development of this site and the people who have helped it happen. And have helped keep it going too.

Tonight as I sit on a deck overlooking a stream with the light dimming I’m going to leave it at that. Well except to say that none of us know the effects of our actions, we just wish them to be for the good. A good beyond paired opposites of good/bad, right/wrong. (The last sentence was added 14th July 2008 in order to clarify the meaning of my use of good in the previous sentence.)

Thank you one and all.

Films/Books, Information, Teachings

Inhaling and Exhaling

July 2, 2008 Mugo 1 Comment

If you want to write you have to read;
It’s as essential as breathing.
Breathing in – reading. Breathing out – writing.

A hut in Idaho, a welcomed rural retreat

How may I improve my writing? I asked. She said, Read!
What can you recommend? I asked. She said, You will find what is good to read? It will fall off a shelf, make itself known. And she was right!

On San Juan Island I picked a book off the shelf hoping to induce sleep. Dakota.
At the rummage sale in Portland last Saturday the same book gazed up at me from the sidewalk. Dakota. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, by Kathleen Norris.

Thanks to Eido-san and to Margaret for your help, encouragement and know-how.

Illuminated log in the early morning after rain

Teachings

Offering Merit

June 30, 2008 Mugo Leave a comment

Time flies quicker than an arrow
And life passes with greater transience than dew.
However skillful you may be,
How can you ever recall a single day of the past?
Shushogi, Zen Master Dogen.

Here is an extract from an email I sent today which inspired today’s posting.

Very many thanks for the feed back on photos and the site generally. That’s always helpful. I’ve decided to add another category to my postings which is ‘Merit’. We so often think of transferring merit as an offering to beings in trouble or who are suffering seriously. Youngsters are such a breath of fresh air and are for me an inspiration just by being themselves as they are. However I know they have a lot of life ahead of them, involving many ups and downs. They can surely benefit from spiritual merit, as can all of us. So from time to time I’ll write ‘Merit’ postings and it was you and your family who inspired me to do that. You’re all an inspiration.

Jade Mountains Buddha Hall