Category Archives: Out and About

Out and About, Teachings, Transmission Lineage

Living Buddha Life – No Beginning, No End

Leave a comment
'Passage' Eden Benchmarks, Stenkrith Park, Kirkby Stephen. Crumbling.
‘Passage’ Eden Benchmarks, Stenkrith Park, Kirkby Stephen. Crumbling.

It’s a long time since I made myself a new day robe. Years possibly. Time passes and one doesn’t necessarily see the frayed cuffs and faded fabric. Imperceptibly, day by day material things age. A rip does get ones attention signally something needs to be done however for the most part the everyday wear and tear goes unnoticed. If the garment does the job that’s good enough and with a weekly wash appropriate smartness is maintained.

Yesterday was almost entirely devoted to making myself a new robe. That involves measuring the old one and then cutting out new fabric ready for sewing. So I’ve been taking a closer look from the outside at what I’ve been wearing every day. The fabric is not at its best, several seams need a few mending stitches and the sleeve cuffs are worn through and overdue for repair. I’ll be giving it some TLC after the new one is finished and then it will become my second best.

And I love that robe! Anything used, worn and handled daily builds a loyalty and a caring and a cherishing which forges a bond. One could say this is just attachment and in part that is true. Recognizing this dynamic between oneself and items of personal use though doesn’t mean the next step is to get rid of, or lower ones regard and gratitude. Not at all. In fact items of personal use that once belonged to revered masters and teachers are highly valued as an object of remembrance. I’ve several things which my late teacher used. In fact I have a brown small kesa made out of fabric from one of her day robes!

What’s stuck in my mind is a conversation from yesterday. I’d been chatting generally to an acquaintance and mentioned what I’d been doing all morning. Oh, are you going to put in part of the old robe? she asked. Why would I do that? I replied. For continuity, was her response.

Now pondering on this business of continuity generally I’m left thinking the marks we make in the world, which gradually crumble and eventually decay, are the visible marks of the life of the Buddha having been lived. I love my old robe because it has given me shelter to live this life, which has no beginning and no end!

The day in and day out living the life the Buddha taught is that which lives on. Unbroken continuity?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Out and About, photograph, Teachings

Put it Down!

Leave a comment

It was my turn to start the ball rolling with this months Field of Merit Newsletter. Each month there is an original article written by one of us. Unfortunately I ended up using a photograph I’d intended to use here in my article. Well here is the photograph anyway and if you would like to read the article that goes with it you can access it via the Newsletter Archive.

Eat Greens!
Eat Greens!

The post is not only about the joys of eating Dandelions and other vegetation plentiful at this time of year or about foraging in general. Though it might have been since I am enthusiastic about eating what grows out in the wild. I always have been enthusiastic however not a very active practicing forager. There is a reason for that. And it is the same reason why you don’t see campaigning on Jade. Yes, sometimes there will be a link to something that desperately needs spiritual merit injected into it.

It is good to work to relieve suffering, including taking up a cause. Many effective campaigns are started by people whose lives have been touched by an incident which propels them to help others in similar situations. In a way, and it’s a long story, Jade Mountains is the answering of a vow I made when I was 13. My brother had seriously gone off the rails mentally and had been taken to hospital. I decided I would find an answer or solution to his plight. Simple as that. The Teachings and practices of Buddhism are what I found. Eventually. So here I am doing my best to point to a way out of suffering, or rather to transcend suffering. Buddhist practice transforms the lives of those who take it up and keep going without falter. Fundamentally it is a life of faith which can influence the lives of beings universally. The spiritual difficulty of championing a cause comes when one can’t put it down!

My mission, if I have one of those, is to help point out a way to put things down. Not to encourage people to pick things up! While at the same time engendering compassion.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Out and About, Teachings

Great Potential

Leave a comment

Going to London for a visa interview at the American Embassy usually leaves a deep impression on me. Most often not a positive one. This time circumstances I met left me feeling philosophical about the whole business. Perhaps because I’m not pressed to get to America and also I was through the whole process in record time. In the past I have been caught in the Embassy for up to five hours!

Picture the scene. The American Embassy in London, the non-immigrant visa section. Having started to que outside at 8.00 along with my follow hopefuls the line starts to move at 8.30, slowly. By around 9.00 I find myself, with more than a 100 others, in a large room facing a huge screen part of which shows a video, with subtitles, of America. The video is selling America. Universities, National Parks, family life, leisure, freedom and above all the potential to achieve ones dream. To be a success. Everybody is young and smiling, there is no rain! This America is indeed beautiful. And clearly we waiting hopefuls would not be putting ourselves through this ordeal if we didn’t want or need a visa to grant us entry to this beautiful country. From Field of Merit – Always Being Buddha.

Merit to those who grieve.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email