Some time ago I posted this.
I’m glad to say that Mitra is enjoying happy times in her adopted home in Florida.
Suzy the other (senior) cat up for adoption crossed the continent in April and is now in Oregon, waiting for just the right home to retire to.
This is for Suzy.
In Sept 2001 Grant and I did a 10 day backpack in the Wokkpash, one of the areas along the route the cyclists will take. Incredible, rugged, and we saw not a single other human, though many other creatures, including herds of caribou and grizzly bears. On Sept. 12 we came out of the Bush along the Alaska Highway, walked to a small gas station and discovered the whole world seemed to be completely insane. We both had a strong impulse to turn around and go back in. The efforts of these cyclists are an attempt to remind us of sanity.
It is important. Best wishes;
Michele
Two of the young women on this journey grew their Buddhism while I grew mine. During my time as a novice at Shasta, and later as a senior, I enjoyed their growing up and now their emerged and inspired adulthood. As they embark on this venture, there is a sense natural pride in them, and all the others too.
Natural pride is fitting here, for them and for what they are riding for.
On this day:
I didn’t look out for the Golden Gate Bridge, or view the impressive skyline from the Bay Bridge. No, I was reading this booklet. It is inspiring. It is about the Buddha’s robe, the kesa. It is about The Tradition of Sewing Practice in the Shunryu Suzuki-roshi American Lineage. I’d just bought it at the Berkeley Zen Center.
In one of the Forewords to the booklet Mel Weitsman speaks thus:
When we had the first Lay Ordination at Zen Center in 1970, I remember Suzuki-roshi saying: “When we receive lay ordination, it’s not that you’re receiving something that makes you better than other people. We don’t receive lay ordination just for ourself, but we do this to encourage other people, to encourage everyone. And we do it to encourage each other’s practice.”
On this day:
Lots of other stuff happened; a wonderful vegetarian lunch near the Civic Center, visits to the Fo Guang Shan temple, to Lacis–Museum of Lace and Textiles (they sell stuff too), to the Berkeley Hat Shop (replaced hat I’d lost in Seattle) and then to my companions workroom. There to be found tankas’ he’d painted, magnificent altars, statues he’d painted, inspiring books, inspiring thoughts. And good tea brewed by his wife.
This was a day, of everydays, when the Buddha’s kesa lives. Many thanks Mike, you are inspiration. And an encouragement since before Buddhism found me.
Please know that you can buy the booklet I refer to in this article by going to Buddha’s Robe Is Sewn.
Detail of a mend.
This chair is special. The woman who enjoys it’s support has asked that it go to a museum when she no longer has use for it. She’s the other side of 80 and still going strong so it will be awhile before the rocker leaves it’s place on her deck.
Special because she simply likes sitting in it? Special because it is old? Special because it was given to her mother back in the early 1900’s? Special because of it’s connection with the history of the West? All of those reasons, and more probably. See how rickety the chair has become and needing splints and screws and other fixes to keep it’s integrity?
When the ’49ers were coming out West on the Oregon Trail, and those who came after them, they would sometimes have to abandon the furniture along the way. Lighten the load perhaps or perhaps they just had to continue on foot with what they could carry. So people gleaned the abandoned and broken furniture and made, furniture. That’s the history of this rocker.
This afternoon, flying high over the Oregon Trail on my way south to the Bay Area, I paused for a moment to remember those who settled the west, the hardship and their endurance. And I also took a moment to remember with fondness the woman and her daughter on whose deck the chair rests. The chair gathered up from Oregon Trail. See! This is an old table leg.
I don’t want to go on about the good-old bad-old days, to cover them with a nostalgic glow. Those times were tough and life was probably gruesome in the extreme, and people did lots they had to do. There are people alive now who have made a huge contribution, as they did, who have given their lives in the service of others. They have know real hardship, and joy, and once again I honour them. Like the chair they may be getting a bit fragile but it does not seem to stop them rocking!
But that we can emulate the oldies pluck.
This summer, five cyclists with a shared commitment to creating a sustainable future and extensive wilderness will bike from the southern border of the Yukon Territory in Canada 2,000 miles to Yellowstone National Park in the United States to raise awareness of the Yellowstone to Yukon project (Y2Y).
Quoted from Ride for the Wild – Bearing Witness
I’m drawing attention to this long distance bicycle ride for a number of reasons. Perhaps the main one is I know several of the riders, including the two pictured here, and many of them are practicing Buddhists within our Order. The cyclist’s route takes them through some of the most beautiful country on the planet. My correspondent would know this personally since she grew up in northern Canada where the group start out from in mid August.
While the young woman, the daughter, was here in Whitefish over the week-end we talked about the ride; about safety issues, the reasons for participating, the practicalities and the inevitable vulnerabilities. Six weeks on the road will be a test for all the participants. Several people, including the mum seen above, will join the group at various stages of the trip. I wish them well and will follow their progress.
As far as I am concerned, in terms Buddhist practice, there is just the doing that which is good and following through in a reflective and intelligent fashion. This small band have a mission and a project which they consider good to do. Go for it! Engage fully, and take every safety precaution you can.