Category Archives: Overcome Difficulties

Natural Pride


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Tomorrow a group of cyclists meet at Watson Lake just inside the Yukon, Canada. They will be writing a blog.

The following is from a comment left on a posting here titled Engaged Action published July 22nd.

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.

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Itching

(This first paragraph has been edited slightly to, hopefully, bring better orientation to the subject at hand.)
Be prepared to be shocked and informed and have light shine on the subject of physical/mental sensory perception and how messages can get wired incorrectly. Think phantom limb syndrome.

Brew a cup of tea and settle down for a long read.

Scientists once saw itching as a form of pain. They now believe it to be a different order of sensation. Its mysterious power may be a clue to a new theory about brains and bodies.

One womans harrowing story is documented in this article in the New Yorker. The excerpt below sets the stage for her journey, with an itch which went on and on and…

It was still shocking to M. how much a few wrong turns could change your life. She had graduated from Boston College with a degree in psychology, married at twenty-five, and had two children, a son and a daughter. She and her family settled in a town on Massachusetts’ southern shore. She worked for thirteen years in health care, becoming the director of a residence program for men who’d suffered severe head injuries. But she and her husband began fighting. There were betrayals. By the time she was thirty-two, her marriage had disintegrated. In the divorce, she lost possession of their home, and, amid her financial and psychological struggles, she saw that she was losing her children, too. Within a few years, she was drinking. She began dating someone, and they drank together. After a while, he brought some drugs home, and she tried them. The drugs got harder. Eventually, they were doing heroin, which turned out to be readily available from a street dealer a block away from her apartment.
The New Yorker, June 30, 2008, The Itch by Atul Gawande

Later in the article we find solutions to perception difficulties such as phantom limbs, through the use of mirrors.

One’s heart cannot but go out to ‘M’. Light a stick of incense.

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A Comment to Previous Posting

The following was originally submitted as a comment to the posting Pre Retreat Fears.

I applaud your candor and would offer this thought: when an obstacle like this arises in one’s practice it is easy to think that something is wrong, or that we are somehow failing. After years of practice I find that aversion and resistance still arise in my thoughts and attitudes. Meditation practice “invites” stuff like this to arise, and its appearance is quite natural and nothing to be alarmed about.

Please don’t despise the part of you that is holding back. It takes a while to find the right balance of patience, gentleness with yourself and firmness. There will always be the selfish aspect of ourselves that we must train with. One day you may come to see it as a grumpy “old friend” who has come round again. With gentle persistence you will be able to coax that old friend into putting up with a bit of inconvenience for the sake of discovering something new.

I wish you the best.

I’ve published this comment because I know the author and can vouch for his practice. As a general rule I don’t publish unsolicited teaching and advice.

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Pre Retreat Fears

I was touched by the candor expressed in this email, and felt others might be touched too.

Hi Rev Mugo

I was due to attend the introductory retreat this weekend but canceled Friday at 11-15am. It filled me with sadness to do that but realised that I was really dreading it. Even though I could see it was just thoughts and that it is only two nights I just could not give my self up to it. Shared sleeping (accommodation), the fixed regimen, no space to escape and all unknown and new in long days after a week at work. I’ve always struggled with ‘joining-in’, and 3 of the 4 I would have been ok with but not all 4. It’s not the sitting I feared (I sit at home for 30mins each day).

Sadness because I would like to deepen practice but also at having realised, and had to let go of, attachment to ideas of how I feel towards letting go of my ego’s demands. So I am sitting with not knowing…

Being at home this weekend will give me time to be with friends and family and help out there; they have had a tough time of late and I am thankful to have been able to help. I should remember to be who I am and not chase after who I feel I should be. How many times have I forgotten that.

I’ll sit with my difficulty with formal religion and might be able to draw on the no doubt rich experience that the community has to offer one day…

In gassho

My reply follows here:

Dear Friend,
You know your story is probably a very common one. However your willingness to share it so frankly is unusual. It’s rather easy to write about the bright and light side of life less so for times when one’s inner life is less than one might wish of oneself. You plainly recognized that the retreat was just going to be too much at that particular point in time. Things change and no doubt you have changed perspective too since writing.

What you have expressed, as I said already, is probably what a lot of people go through around attending a retreat. I know many people sign up and then cancel in the end. I’m wondering if you would be willing for me to publish your letter on ‘jade’ along with an edited version of this reply? It might help others in a similar predicament to know they are not the only one in the world to cancel out on a meditation retreat, or visit to a priory or monastery. Often there is more at stake (when taking those initial steps) than anybody could realize at the time, and that can be deeply scary without really knowing why.
In gassho,
Mugo

May the merit of this posting be offered to the friends and family of my correspondent.

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In Case of Emergency

Dave, who died recently, was taken to the Emergency Department having collapsed in a supermarket. He had a cell phone on his person and, as good fortune would have it, his lunch date phoned to see why he was late… The ER nurse answered the phone and the lunch date came running, and with her came the information needed to treat him appropriately.

Now. What about if you or I were to be taken off to the ER department in a state of major disrepair. Maybe we are unconscious. Who is our next of kin? Who can make decisions on our behalf? Does this person have any medical allergies? And…just who is this person? There are just a few major pieces of information ER nurses need to know and need to know fast. We can help them, and ourselves, by carrying the information on our person. There is the on-line ICE (In Case of Emergency) service however Ed of Impacted Nurse suggests, urges, people to make themselves a low-tech ‘ICE’ ID card.

It only takes a short time to make up these things and believe me, this low-tech ICEcard is much more likely to be of use to us. Such a small thing, it can make a big difference to the quality and appropriateness of the care you will get.

Today I’ve been preparing to be the temporary priest in charge here at the Berkeley Buddhist Priory. This is earthquake country. One needs to be prepared. So it was with some relief that I read about the 19 Commonly Held Myths about Disasters. Maybe an earthquake does not mean instant death after all. And yes, the house has been retro fitted to withstand earthquakes.
Thanks to Ed, once again, for the information.

There is a Buddhist saying: Hope for the best, Prepare for the worst and do the possible.

Anticipatory fear can cause one to become paralyzed into inaction however being prepared can dissolve that fear.

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