And the day came
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk it took
to blossom.
Anais Nin
I love what I read on Listening Ear. This article Asking for Help, Risk and Reward was in the monthly newsletter, where I picked up on the above quote. Thanks Megan. You are a blossom one and no mistake. As are all the budding blossoms in the world. That would be all beings. Note I wrote budding blossoms pointing out our lives are not bound by time. Shakyamuni Buddha is, was and will be Enlightened TOGETHER WITH all living things. And with the historic Buddha in mind……
We are coming up for the time of the celebration of the Buddha’s birth and enlightenment, known as Wesak. This Sunday I’ll be at Throssel to celebrate. If the snow isn’t too deep!
Oh Holy Buddha I pray
I may continue to
fly in the clear blue sky.
Falling to the ground I pray
I will land on both feet
rising again on joy filled wings.
Rising, falling
1000 times down
1001 times up.
Near or far high or low
up or gasping
for life itself.
Within and beyond
is the boundless sky.
We are as that.
This post, the merit of this post, is for those who are struggling with life itself.
The gist of the above writing comes from a piece I recited at the end of my Chief Junior ceremony. Which I did in 1982. The ceremony marks a major step in ones novice training. Thank you to Mark for this amazing photograph. He was not to know how special the image is for me. As it is for him.
This writing desk was asking for some serious TLC and I’ve taken on the task. Bought at the local Charity Shop, it was love at first sight. I’d wanted a writing desk and now I have one. Or has it got me!
This is the before photograph of the desk in its original, scratched and flaking state. You will see the after picture ‘in due course’. This is my ‘intention’ desk. To write more and more often desk. With a coat of paint tender care along with love will be etched into the wood. It’s a hand-writing desk. Somewhere special and specific I can return to sit down and take up an actual pen, with ink. Proper ink. No great novel or even great thoughts, simply a place to land before, put pen to paper and see what comes. Blog posts and thoughts I didn’t even know were there. Who knows.
Now here is a woman who has herself a desk too. She calls it her Intellectual Altar.
So now when I sit down with a cup of tea and either my laptop or notebook, I have a clean, uncluttered space to contemplate: a place where I can spread out my books, papers, or whatever else I’m working on. Just as a Dharma room Buddha is a visual representation of the calm, compassionate focus we’d like to attain, my desk is a tangible reminder of the priorities and practices I’d like to cultivate.
There is enough time. Take your time. Take Time. You have all the time in the world. The world is not waiting for you to finish. Not waiting for you to arrive. Finish in your own time. Plenty of time. Honestly. You and time are not in a fight. No rush, No need to finish – you can have more time. As long as you like. Take your time. Please.
I can – do it in my own time. I don’t have to do anything ‘on time’. What’s the rush? Why the hurry? No train to catch (as my mother would say).
One foot steps out and before I know it, the other is there up ahead! It is so easy to get stuck in one’s ways. Rush/hurry, push on, pull back. Not knowing how to stop. To really stop. To decide to; stop, not step, not plan the next.
This is only part of the story. It is a start. A look at myself and my way of going about life. In a rush, in a hurry. It’s words to myself. I know enough to know that fast and slow, rushed and not are ideas which cannot, should not be maxims to live by. Neither fast/rushed nor slow/relaxed can become maxims for or against the ways to go about the day. Circumstances resist concepts. However, (now taking a breath out and a breath in,) being aware of one’s ‘set’, one’s largely unconscious way. Is good.
Thanks to my tea companion of yesterday. Thanks to the reader who sent me an email noticing I’d not posted much recently, and offering merit. And a big thanks to all who subscribe to this blog. If you haven’t done that already it is easy to do. Simply look to the left of your screen, fill in your email address and press the green subscribe button. Your address is safe with me.
It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?
Pat Schneider
Being a bit pushed for time and mind space to write posts it’s so good to have some blog contributions to keep the boat afloat. Well I hope I can be delicate and fragrant, as the Wych Hazel is, under the stress and strain of these in-between times.
Between Winter
and Spring
between now and
what’s up-ahead.
Be patient O ordinary things
be patient with us
as we wriggle and chomp
our ordinary days
Thanks to Diane in Victoria, Canada for the poem and to Mark in the UK for the photograph. He writes thus: The witch hazel in our front garden blossoms in late January / early February. Although everyone writes it ‘witch’ hazel, it’s actually ‘wych’ (as in ‘wych elm’). ‘Wych’ derives from an ancient word meaning pliant, or pliable, and related to ‘weak’. But these fragile petals are unhurt by frost or snow, and on the coldest days they give out a delicate and lovely fragrance. I expect you could work up a teaching from that!
Hope you’re hale and hearty.
Bows
Pliable? “Able to adjust readily to different conditions”
A strength.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
