This animation video, narrated by Stephen Fry, on the Four Noble Truths is from a BBC Radio 4 site called A History of Ideas. Other animations answer such questions as, What is Justice? and How Can I Know Right from Wrong? In charming fashion. Learning for all ages.
The following was first published March 9, 2012. I’m republishing it now for all those who are arriving at the monastery today to participate in the week-long retreat called Jukai. During the week a number of people will formally make their wish to practice. Simply coming here and joining in everything wholeheartedly is a remarkable and potentially life changing event. Good fortune everybody.
The wonderful thing
about Zen practice is
that you get to do it
whether you like it or not.
I was talking to a woman the other day who is preparing to receive the Precepts during Jukai at Throssel in early April. This quote indicates that once you have committed to the practice it does itself. One thing that seems to happen during the lead-up to the commitment made during Jukai is to question ones ‘readiness’. Questions such as Am I able to keep the Precepts? Or, Am I adequately prepared, or would it be best to wait another year?
Like anything else one commits to, one enters with the understanding and depth one has at that time. Invariably that understanding deepens as one goes on in life. In the beginning taking up formal practice seems to be all about discipline. Not a word or concept some of us take so kindly too! The rebellious amongst us know how the internal pressure to ‘sit still’ works with that rebellious nature which…well…is in the habit of rebelling. There is always the need to be reflective around what we choose to do and not do. That is true for everybody.
Even after very many years of committed practice that little duality, Discipline v rebellion, can left foot us. At such times it’s good to take a kind look at oneself. Not sitting may not be a problem with discipline. It might be that something is pushing one to take a deeper look as to why one sits anyway. In the beginning it is a ‘good thing’ and becomes a ‘good’ habit which proves we are not the hopeless kid we sometimes think we are!
We have been told that over and over that ‘pure zazen must be done’, that sitting is a good thing. But what is the good, and what is the thing? The kid in us all, the rebellious one, gets some hard knocks along the way but not everything needs to be laid at her door. As the quote says, we practice whether we like it, or like it not. More importantly whether we know it or not. And along the way we struggle but that’s just a finger pointing back to us to ease up on ourselves. Why not sit still and enjoy and appreciate the gem we carry in our hearts. Sometimes we know it’s twinkle and most often not.
The gem, however, can be lost sight of. But not for long though.
Thanks to Chris Y. for the quote. And I’m sorry not to post more often of recent weeks. Right now my Internet connection has failed so nothing much will appear here for a few days. Sitting in the local gift shop where there is a free Internet connection I realize how I enjoy writing in such conditions. The statutory coffee and cake helps of course!
This post is for those who are stepping, those who have been stepping for years and all of us who have been stepping…eternally. For that’s, in truth, how it is. Practice has no beginning and no end. But receiving the Precepts formally is not nothing.
I have been going through the papers I’ve been carrying around while traveling and came across a couple of things I wrote when I first arrived at the house I stayed in on Cortez Island during the last week of February. It would seem I was pondering on ‘enough’ back then.
In lighter and darker
Shades of green
Set in wafts of
grey mist.The Sound
seamlessly IS
Sky – water – land
No edges.As a hungry stranger
Wanting, watching
To see
More.Is not the green and grey
Enough?
The drifting wood
The Eagle too?It IS enough.
Flying tonight. Vancouver Canada to London Heathrow. Then onwards to Newcastle and Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey.
My start point was at the top left hand corner of the map seen below.
Phew! I am so glad to look at the map of the trails I walked late last afternoon. It would have been kinda handy to have had it in my hand at the time! From my understanding, and befuddled mind, I must have walked all around the edge of the map! It was over two, and nearer to three, hours I was on my feet deep in the magical mossy old growth forest. It was getting dark by the time I completed the walk and I was definitely getting anxious considering I didn’t know where I was, or how much trail lay between me and where I’d parked the car! Somehow all turned out well and I had one of the most memorable walks. Ever.
I think I took the Swim Rocks trail. It was a choice between that and this way…!
Yes a walk which is linked to an adventure back in 1967. I came to Cortes with two friends by water taxi, stayed a night with their acquaintances, swam in Gunflint Lake and then flew back to Campbell River on Vancouver Island the next day by sea plane (or float plane as they are called). The whole experience left a deep impression and almost by chance I find myself here again AND yesterday I walked in the forested-edge of Gunflint Lake! Forty + years later.
I have had the time and the mental space to reflect on the intervening years. Nothing and everything has changed. How so? Time, and space, have a way of twisting and curling and evaporating and reemerging which defies the ordinary mind and its capacity to understand. I’ll say no more!
With much gratitude to those who have facilitated this trip including those who have donated CAD (Canadian Dollars). Rain and sun, mist and blue sky – all magical. And memorable – in the way a movie is memorable when it touches ones heart. Thank you to those near and far for making this trip possible.