Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties

The Compassion Of Animals

August 13, 2011 Mugo 3 Comments

Edera of Little House In the Paddy continues her reflections. Today she remembers the hours immediately before and after her husbands death. The cat referred to below was, of course, Orlando (The Marmalade Cat)! Apparently he is actually a she! No matter. The compassion and tenderness of this creature is breath taking. I’m so glad she came across the road to sit vigil, early morning on the 14th July.

Around 3.30, with my heart racing, I waited outside our front door. Then a cat appeared from the dark and snuggled against my legs. When I sat down on the doorstep she jumped on my lap which was very comforting. She was purring softly and when I looked at her face, I thought she looked quite like our old cat Tora. At that moment I had a slight fear that Iain was visiting me to say good-bye.

I’d like to be able to say something about these reflections on Little House however I’m rather too close to the process to say anything useful. Or coherent.

Thank you for the notes encouraging me to write about Buddhist ceremonial and the steps needed to be taken generally following a death. I’ll do that when I can. Thank you for your messages of support too. All much appreciated.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties

A Long Shadow

August 9, 2011 Mugo 13 Comments

By the end of the day; ready to rest, relax, sit for a bit and then turn in. These summer nights the light doesn’t fade from the sky until nearly 10.00 pm. With skylights I can watch the grey/blue turn to navy blue, some nights the stars shine in. There is something about an attic room that can’t be matched, and at the moment my room is at the top of the house. Ah, attics! When the light has faded and all is still I’ve been inclined, these past days, to stay with the stars. If not the stars then deep sleep into the morning has become my habit.

I’ve been thinking about documenting what happens when a Buddhist dies. Specifically what happens to the body; the practicalities around disposal and the ceremonies we do in my particular Buddhist tradition to do that with due dignity. And I’ll hopefully get down to that now I’m rested and settled.

There is no doubt about it a sudden death is a shock to the system, what ever the circumstances of the death happen to have been. The shock, rather like an echo, reverberates for quite some time. Even after the last strains have faded, which to a large extent they have for me, there still remains a certain something. A long shadow perhaps, cast by a presence no longer there.

Edera continues to write for Little House, at the moment documenting the days leading up to her husband’s death. Some days she takes a break and writes about this day. I know already that these past weeks, as we sift and sort our way through our days together, will leave a deep impression on both of us. One grows close in adversity.

Overcome Difficulties

Little House Lives On

August 3, 2011 Mugo 1 Comment

Little House in the Paddy is the place where Iain shared his ideas and kept records of his life in Japan. Writing for it was usually his first job of the day, with a cup of coffee beside him. Even when he was taken into hospital, he told me to let readers know what had happened. He would be glad, I think, for me to keep posting. The ideas will be very different, because it’s from me.

Now is the time to tell my side of the story about life in leafy Chiba-ken.

A New Beginning – Edera at Little House In The Paddy.

This step to continuing Little House is no small thing. Every success Edera with your new beginning.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

Humans And Animals Caught In A Web….

July 4, 2011 Mugo 2 Comments

Nanki-Poo in pensive mood

A Small-Sized Mystery

Leave a door open long enough,
a cat will enter.
Leave food, it will stay.
Soon, on cold nights,
you’ll be saying “excuse me”
if you want to get out of your chair.
But one thing you’ll never hear from a cat
is “excuse me.”
Nor Einstein’s famous theorem.
Nor “The quality of mercy is not strained.”
In the dictionary of Cat, mercy is missing.
In this world where much is missing,
a cat fills only a cat-sized hole.
Yet your whole body turns toward it
again and again because it is there.
By Jane Hirshfield

Many thanks to Rev. Margaret for this poem answering that question I posed some time ago around what is the enchantment surrounding cats?

And animals can be used and collected to accumulate the most terrible suffering. See Animal Hording. Do take a few deep breaths to prepare yourself before clicking on the link. Then offer your good thoughts for animals and humans caught in this horrendous web of suffering – together.

Daily Life, Overcome Difficulties, Teachings

A Restricted Life

July 2, 2011 Mugo 6 Comments

The ultimate in sheds!
I’ve been thinking how very fortunate I was to be able to spend time alone on retreat in that wonderful setting in the mountains. Unremitting sunshine, peace and plenty. What a charmed life! It is all too easy to lose sight of the gifts that fall before us. So this is just a pause to express gratitude and to realize that I’ve already mostly forgotten those long sunny days and those dark clear nights. And all that came and went in the constantly changing inner landscape. But it doesn’t take much to cast back and remember….

Small things can take on a life of their own, when alone in the mountains. There was the obsessing about and looking for the lost stainless steel half cup measure. There I was digging through all the kitchen drawers, several times. Opening up all the food containers to see if it had been left there. Turning over the compost bin, going through the bags of rubbish. On and on. And I never did find it. Nor did I find my glasses! Then there were haunting sounds. What was that? A bear! The wind in the trees? Or something, someone perhaps, much more sinister. Imaginings can grow and grow until ones little heart is thumping with fear – when out in the woods alone on a still night.

So knowing ones mind to have certain capacities; for example to go way over the top on small things, to have the ability to enter into wild imaginings and generally to while away hours of daylight is to be freed. And that might sound like a rather odd thing to say. Perhaps knowing the extremes of ones thoughts and emotions helps one get a perspective on them. Thoughts pass and often there is a chuckle in there too! Who for example would have thought I’d imagine I was damaging my brain with my eye drops? Or that the headache was a sure sign of a brain tumor! Really!

We might laugh but it is no laughing matter for those who are, for one reason or another, caught up in such thoughts and really believe them to be true in an absolute way. And have no means of gaining a perspective or even know that they have lost it. Those for example whose senses are impaired, who are physically or mentally restricted or are in some other way vulnerable. Living in restricted circumstances can cause the imagined to become real, and then be acted upon.

This is a simple thing to see, and a good thing to know. After all are we all not living in restricted circumstances?

Jade Mountains Buddha Hall