This little group of glass objects has been collecting on my windowsill over the past weeks. When I sit in my chair for a moment of repose I take the opportunity to run an appreciative eye over them. Now and then glancing out at the sky and clouds. (Or the rain running down the window pane!) Depending.
They are as massed humanity. A vision of difference and sameness. Clothed only in colour. Transparent, nothing hidden. And that is how we are, at least how we are to those outside of ourselves. If one looks, with care, difference is just that. Difference. Particular, beautiful. As I sit I find my eye falling on a particular piece and staying there running my eyes around and though it. The blue is a favourite, the purple is new and pleasantly knobbly. The pale green tinted dish gets my attention, wide open and receptive. I’m tempted to put a stray bead or button in it but I’ll not. They all are empty. They will stay that way.
Thus can the mass of humanity, the press of people, be known. Living reflectively has us transparent unto ourselves. Formal meditation cannot have us knowing our selves as anything other than transparent. Brilliant, lovely, lovable.
What IS it about peeling paint? Decay? A moment caught in the flow of time. There is the Wabi-sabi Japanese esthetic which, I’ve discovered, has a basic Buddhist teaching at it’s roots. Namely the Three Signs of Existence: impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). (Sometimes referred to as the Three marks of existence.) However that’s all very well and good, and one can get caught up in thinking about and analyzing why peeling paint and the like is so…..’beautiful’, but why the attraction? Why, for example, is the wrinkled face of an elderly person so ‘can’t keep my eyes off’ alluring?
This is the The Garden Station, Langley where last Sunday we had tea and scones: that’s after a walk along the old railway line, a sandwich in the lee of a stone wall (the wind was almost gale force), and a pleasant return along a wide and sheltered path through the woods. The station cafe is a delight, the conversation was stimulating and the scones home-made.
My Sunday walking companions. What a pleasure to move across the earth, together.
The conversation that emerged while we had our tea and scone (and jam) has had me contemplating this question of peeling paint! Or rather the underlying question of consciousness and Being – of self nature. Could it possibly be I’ve a blogging theme lurking here to explore? I certain hope so. For, when day after day I am simply not moved to write here, I find myself bereft. Ah! Perhaps it (the lurking theme) is the sweet-sadness of the passage of time, layer upon layer, showing the flow of….what is that? Being?
Update 28th May: The original map published last evening has been replaced with this one. So anybody who rushed to download yesterdays map with a view to following the marked trail….please delete and use this one. Can’t be too careful about following the official footpaths, although it is not always so easy to know where they are. I speak from experience!
It all makes perfect sense, now! Here is a map of the ‘Well Hope’ walk which I, along with a trusty walking companion, did yesterday. More than three hours walking but we were not rushing.
About a month or more ago I attempted this walk alone. Although armed with this map I lost my way, ending up in the next valley over from the one I’d intended to walk down. It was a bit of a shock to round a hill to find I wasn’t looking at our familiar valley with the monastery reasuringly nestled on the opposite hillside, as in the photograph below. To be honest I have been reluctant to try the walk again and reticent to mention this fact. So I was glad of the company and especially glad to be helped with the correct usage of the words reticent and reluctant! What little gems they are too. And what are good Dharma Friends for if not to pass on the gems of their knowledge and understanding.
Throssel Hole Abbey is picked out in sunshine. Look for Myrtle Bank on the OS map.
Certainty is a dangerous beast to be sure. In terms of my failed attempt at the Well Hope walk I was convinced I was on the correct path! Truth was I wasn’t on a path at all! I remember thinking, I’m not lost I just don’t know where I am in relationship to everywhere else! That’s mistaken certainty, with an extra helping of delusion thrown in.
Oh and I’ve thought myself to be reticent about doing things when in fact I was reluctant! Now thinking about it certainty, knowing you are right, isn’t the issue. It’s ignorance isn’t it? Only when proved to be wrong, wrong valley and wrong word use, does the habit of certainty even come up as an issue. If you are right, then you are RIGHT and why would one question that.
So I think of Buddhist practice, meditation, being about shining light on ignorance. That’s the ‘not knowing’ form of ignorance and also the ‘ignore-ance’ form. Humbling thought. Yes, and sometimes, depending on ones personality and make up, it is important to retain the thought ‘I could be right‘, self-doubt being the default for many people.
A Buddha conveys stillness. While sitting, walking and laying down.
Some years ago I attended a ceremony at a Christian church. My very dear second cousin was being ‘installed’ as the new incumbent of a parish near Liverpool. It was her first ‘posting’ and I was excited for her. As with the ceremonies during this week in the monastery, when people formally commitment to their chosen path, so too with other religions. There are processions!
This week I’ve been directly involved in a couple of the processions, walking with dignity is the order of the day. That’s another way of describing walking meditation by the way. On such occasions it is important to pay attention to ones deportment since how one appears helps to convey the inner solemnity (and profundity) of the occasion. And how one moves or ‘carries oneself’ invariably shows something of ones inner attitude of mind. But it is dangerous, and poor Buddhism, to evaluate (if one needs to) a person by how they appear. How does it go? Don’t judge a book by its’ cover.
At the beginning of my cousin’s ceremony the bishop, bedecked in his formal attire, along with church elders and assembled dignitaries, ambleddown the aisle! The image of him remains clear in my minds eye. Even now! And yet while I observed his ungainly movements he, at the same time, conveyed an air of authority, gentleness, compassion and kindness. And of being a free thinker too! During his speech to the gathered congregation my impression was borne out by his words.
Comportment is more than mere display (as might be the case with stiff deportment). It is an unconscious outward expression of one’s inner being. By considering someone’s comportment you may guess at their self-esteem, their consideration for others and their mental and spiritual well-being. The above taken from here.
I have been going through the papers I’ve been carrying around while traveling and came across a couple of things I wrote when I first arrived at the house I stayed in on Cortez Island during the last week of February. It would seem I was pondering on ‘enough’ back then.
In lighter and darker
Shades of green
Set in wafts of
grey mist.
The Sound
seamlessly IS
Sky – water – land
No edges.
As a hungry stranger
Wanting, watching
To see
More.
Is not the green and grey
Enough?
The drifting wood
The Eagle too?
It IS enough.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
