And being envious of others in their supreme achievements,
Wastes the mind night and day in efforts to exceed,
From Songs of Ryokan, Chinese Poems #103
Contemplation – Five
Category Archives: Teachings
Contemplation – Four
Whereas a foolish person holds willfully to facts and details,
To drown in subtle differences of words and lines,
From Songs of Ryokan, Chinese Poems #103
Contemplation – Three
A wise person learns the mystery of existence in a flash
And climbs in a leap beyond the world of hollow phenomena,
From Songs of Ryokan, Chinese Poems #103
Screen Time?
I will be pre-publishing nine posts to cover the period while we at Throssel are in retreat. During that time I’m going to do my best to deliberately limit my ‘screen time’ which will include not publishing or responding to any comments that you might leave. Do respond though, I’ll publish them when I’m back on-line.
In 1998 I signed up for email and was possibly the first monk to have an email address in the Order. At the time I had an inkling of how this means of communication would change my way of working, I hadn’t anticipated just how much and that the Internet (and thus screen time) would come to dominate my days. Not a complaint by any means and it will be interesting to see how I do these next days. Back to posting ‘live’ on the 16th, or thereabouts.
Wesak Talk – Video
Just in case you missed this video of Rev. Berwyn giving a Dharma Talk yesterday. The sound of the fountain bathing the baby Buddha can be heard in the background. Halfway through the rain started to rattle down on the roof windows adding to the talk. The rain of the Dharma flowing into the lake of kindness, that could come from the offertory at the end of the ceremony. Or perhaps that’s from another ceremony offertory.