Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties

Daily Life, Out and About, Overcome Difficulties, photograph

The Cherry Blossom Blooms….

February 28, 2015 Mugo 4 Comments

The kind woman who made it possible for me to stay on Cortes Island left some twigs of Cherry Blossom in a vase. She said, ‘I hope they bloom by the time you leave’. They have as you can see. And the sun shafts in the windows of the house by the beach while I pack to return to Victoria via Gabriola Island.

Rev. Alicia is on the move too. 24 years ago she came to Throssel to be a monk. I admire the Reverends up-beat optimism conveyed in this post. I’m glad you became a monk and glad to be part of your journeying onwards.

Good fortune to all on this lovely day as I look out on Desolation Sound. So named by a George Vancouver. Reflecting on his sailing through these waters, “there was not a single prospect that was pleasing to the eye”. One sea sick sailor I’ll be bound! Just shows you how the body influences ones outlook on life don’t it! Oh and how the condition of ones body can impact ones outlook too. So easy to miss in the rush to go places and do stuff.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Words In Repose

February 22, 2015 Mugo 3 Comments

Words sing from my heart
Unformed.
Like air in the feathers
of a bird in flight.

What Joy!

Words can land
Take form.
You said where there’s wind
there’s ‘hot air’.

Hum, what’s that mean?

The bird folds
her airy wings?
Hot air condenses
Onto the cool page?

Ah! Rest, repose.

Anyhow
This is a start
standing in the kitchen
making marks.

Need, lunch.

This is for Gerry with unbounded gratitude for your writing encouragement. Yes. OK. You said I have an ‘ear’ for words, I bow to your long life experience. I heard you, every word. And saw your smile too. Thank you. No ‘landing’ is every happy (for long), just presents new challenges. Good fortune.

Overcome Difficulties

Motivation

February 14, 2015 Mugo 2 Comments

Talking to a chap on the phone this morning he gave me the other part of that well known quote:

You can lead a horse
to water
but you can’t
make her drink.

The second part of this Cowboy logic is:

You can add
salt to her feed
and make her
thirsty!

What is your ‘salt’?

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

Appreciating The Impact of Words

January 12, 2015 Mugo 1 Comment

Words cannot express things;
Speech does not convey the spirit.
Swayed by words, one is lost;
Blocked by phrases, one is bewildered.

Mumon’s Verse for Chao-chou’s Oak Tree, Case 37
– Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan & Hekiganroku, p. 110
Translated with commentaries by Katsuki Sekida

A word came my way the other day and looking into it’s meaning one could understand it in two, or more, almost completely opposing ways. A shadow side and a non shadow. Positive or negative, or somewhere in between. As children in the playground when a child was ‘calling somebody names’ which nowadays would be classed as bullying we had a well-worn retort. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. Of course they hurt but to tackle the name caller was to court more than nasty names. See, Sticks and Stones: When Words are Used as Weapons, By Miriam Adahan There are some wonderful teachings from the Torah on right speach in the link to the book.

Words or phrases applied to oneself or to others can have a devastating and have a long-lasting impact especially on the young. Words stick and if they come with the background intent to hurt they can stick for a life time. Choosing words and phrases carefully is obviously important however even with the best of intentions people grasp the wrong end of the stick! I’m eternally sorry for all those who have found themselves hurt by words and phrases I’ve written or uttered.

What was the word that came my way the other day? Insouciant. Meanings listed as follows: showing a casual lack of concern; indifferent.
synonyms: nonchalant, untroubled, unworried, unruffled, unconcerned, indifferent, blasé, heedless, careless; relaxed, calm, equable, serene, composed, easy, easygoing, carefree, free and easy, happy-go-lucky, lighthearted, airy, blithe, mellow;
informal: cool, laid-back, slaphappy.

Overcome Difficulties, photograph, Teachings

Perfectly Pink!

December 27, 2014 Mugo 2 Comments

Clearly Mt. Shasta our close neighbour here at Shasta Abbey has moods. And equally clearly people have preferences when it comes to the mood of the mountain. Be that the Alpine Glow of the evening light as below.Or the Perfectly Pink, over the top could pick it up and take it home, look which is one of my favourites. Thanks to the monk who captured these two photographs. And now I’m thinking of a correspondent who wrote recently of her fond memories of the mountain while visiting here some twenty years ago. Fundamentally it is the same mountain, as close as it was back then.

And just as with the mountain and the weather conditions which produce images redolent with feeling, so too with us. We show our moods in how we appear and in how we respond to those we encounter, conditioned by our own weather – mental, physical, emotional.

Of late I’ve been holding off a cold and I’m seeing myself responding to hands of concern and voices of sympathy and advice in a somewhat frosty way. The other evening I pulled a face so unlike me that I even shocked myself! Yes, I guess we would all like to appear as we would wish others to see us. If not perfectly pink at least something close to a glow. And certainly not appear such that others recoil in horror! As happened the other evening.

This post is for a cat who is struggling to live and for her care taker who appeared in my dream last night – her face a saintly glow. Oh and for my patient and caring fellows who can see past appearances. Thank goodness!

Jade Mountains Buddha Hall