Field Maple
Keep in! the teacher at the back of the line of children called, gently, as they scuttled excitedly from the school yard onto the pavement this morning. Ah sunshine! I shared a little in their excitement remembering teacher telling us to Keep in as we scramble out of school to go on a ramble. Two by two, hand in hand and one behind the other. Just once a year we went into the woods during school time to…ramble. I loved those days.

The new leaves on the Field Maple caught my eye. They shine. Then as other leaves grow they lose their shine, mature and mellow. As is the way of things. One sees this process everywhere. Easy to think in sad terms. Perhaps in terms of passing time and all that brings in an everyday way. Of aging; decay and eventual shriveling up and ceasing to be. But I think not. Not today. There is something eternal in the scuttling excited children as with the new leaves. (And also equally true with the shriveled leaf.) There is certainly a depth to existence which is not diminished by mere passing of physical time.

It is your own brilliantly luminous Treasure House.

Let loose this brilliance through your eyes, (and)
you bathe the Buddha body and Buddha Land in splendor;

Buster bathes his Buddha body on a long walk in the Lake District.

when you set this luminosity free through your ears,
you can hear the sounds and voices of the Buddhas at work;

Two young owls hang out waiting for parental rescue.

When you let this radiance pass out through your hands,
you change yourself as well as others;

Herdwick sheep of The Lake District – I’m thinking knitting!

when you let it pass out through your feet,
you put yourself into action,
now stepping forward, now stepping back.

View back from Fairfied summit.

Great Master Keizan

Many thanks to the monk who took the photograph of the owls and for his and others company on perhaps the longest and most arduous walk I have ever done. The Fairfield Horseshoe circular walk starting at Rydal Hall. Wonderful walk. Good company. Still. No wind.