Well these photographs are too good (breath-taking) to miss. And I am proud to say I took the banner photo on the warpandwoofknitting blog. The 27th was a special anniversary day for the author and what better thing to do than go hike up a mountain.
Being up high, climbing up to a high point and look out around, is what I love to do. Inspiring and a time when insights break free in unexpected ways. Ah! Happy memories of climbing a Tor on Dartmoor years ago – which is where I may well be in a few days time.
Who knows how and where
the sweet dew
of mortal life
will…make manifest.
In life do we notice?
Yes! But life is eternal
Isn’t it?
Right now never ends!
With a crash or a thud
or a slow dribbling
away.
Life breath stops
Eternal night? – a fantasy.
Opening palms skywards
the sweet dew
remains
in our deepest Heart.
This is for Rosie who met a tragic end the other day and for Grant, My Luminous Friend, who took his last breath a year ago. My thoughts for those who watched the breathing stop. And still the ‘sweet dew’ remains. In the words of Neil Sedaka, Breaking up is hard to do.
And thanks to Mark, once again, for his photograph.
How it was from the air in 1984.
There is a new photo gallery ‘How it was in the early 1980’s’ on the Throssel website showing how it was in the early 1980’s. It takes my breath away to think of the amount of work done by the monks and guests during this time. The ceremony hall was finally completed in 1985 as I remember. And soon after that the old barn was pulled down and construction started on what is now the monks meditation hall with rooms and offices below.
Every body gave there all to make this place possible. And that has not ceased…..
Well done Mark for capturing images of this Dragonfly. Sometime I’ll write about Dragons and the Buddhist teaching they are associated with. Needless to say the photograph, and dragons in general, have nothing to do with the subject of this post!
A talk by me titled Understanding Commitment, or appreciating the evolution of commitment to practice, has recently been uploaded onto the Throssel Hole Abbey website. Thought you might be interested.
Tomorrow I head towards Norwich for the start of a nine day ‘tour’. The weather doesn’t look that special. Have a thought…please.
Ryokan, it is said, returned to his hut late one evening to find a thief there. He took this calmly – it was clear to both of them that there wasn’t anything worth robbing in his hut. Ryokan was troubled because he didn’t want the man to leave empty-handed having walked up the mountain to see him. So he took all his cloths off and gave them to the thief. The thief took them and slunk off down the mountain…..
After he had left Ryokan mused, ‘Poor fellow, I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon’. Ryokan sitting naked gazing at the moon wrote the following poem.
The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window.
Thanks to Mark for the beautiful photograph of the moon, apparently taken a short time before, or was it after, I made my last post.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
