The way to know life is to love many things.
Van Gogh
I’d say that love has no edges, and still there are the 100 Grasses – every things, to love.
This quote was lifted from a recent comment. Thanks
Love Is?
Category Archives: Teachings
In Memory Of Mothers
Walking in the woods the other day I saw this berry, a Salmon Berry I think. I was tempted to pick and eat it, but didn’t. A woman who has recently died came to mind and decided to leave it there, in her memory. So here it is, for all to see. This could be a berry, an offering, for every mom. We all have one and whatever the relationship was/is like, the quality of nurturing for example, one can at the very least be grateful for being born into this world.
For Jack and family.
Just – Not In Sight
I’m kneeling.
Not thought of kneeling before
my laptop.
Have to. The table is low.
It’s a stool actually, not a table.
An ant. A very busy ant.
Runs up the screen, climbs up
the mountain of Jade Mountains
then off across the top of the screen.
Again.
Viewing in profile. Now down
the side of the screen. So active.
I start to wonder if it’s looking
for something. Or is it on a mission
of some kind. Perhaps it’s one of those
scout ants I’ve been told about.
WATCH OUT for the scout ant!
Beware! Be aware.
There will be a marching army
behind it. If it’s worth their while
to march this way. But I know better,
now,
not to give them any cause at all.
A whiff of something sweet, something
of anything. An invitation?
Will bring on an invasion.
Thinking about ants. Talking about ants. Using military words. Invasion. Marching. Mission. But who am I to know what they are up to. They are simply making a living. Best way they can. Arn’t we all.
….uh! There it is again making
a decent south to the task bar!
Across the rocky key pads and….
down my sleeve! Or
into the headphone jack?
Yes, kneeling before my laptop, as I still am, seems to help. With? With connecting ‘with’. Which is just about what my writing for Jade Mountains is all about.
I don’t like to think about it however
I think that ant is now down
at my foot. So perhaps it is time
to get up and take a walk in
those wonderful woods. Where I walk
with those four Bull Elk.
Not that I’ve caught sight of them.
Yet.
However. They are non the less there.
Just not in sight.
Like you.
….uh! There goes that ant again
heading for the rocks.
Over the mountains. Deft climber.
Now. Down behind the screen.
Again.
Where you all are!
Sitting.
Still.
Always still.
Immaculate Action
Human beings must work.
When you are not competent, learn.
When you are competent, do it yourself.When you are not familiar, practice more.
When you want to work,
start immediately.When you are poor,
work all the more.
When you are rich, work harder.If work is done wrongly,
correct it.
When you are old, enjoy working more.
Seen at a Chinese Buddhist Temple in Malaysia.
Translated from the Chinese.
If one thinks of work as action then, indeed, we are working all the time. And I believer that is what the above quote is pointing to. It’s not about the work ethic in the way the word work is commonly understood.
What I am getting around to in this post is to tell you about the meaning of my name. Mu means empty or immaculate and go means action, or karma, or work. So Mugo translates as immaculate action, empty action, empty karma, immaculate karma.
Change the word work to act or action in the saying and something rather interesting comes through. Right there is that begging question. What is my purpose? Why am I alive? What’s my motive? From whence does action spring?
Mugo – (the word) points to the (smiling) heart of the great matter. My name has been, and is, my great teacher and guide. It was given to me here at Shasta Abbey.
This post is dedicated to the recently elected Abbess of Shasta Abbey and the community both lay and monastic. It has been a privilege and a delight to sit and walk and talk and, this evening, eat ice cream with you all!
The Servant Leader
The idea of the servant as leader (developed by Robert Greenleaf) came out of reading Hermann Hesse’s Journey to the East. In this story, we see a band of men on a mythical journey… The central figure of the story is Leo, who accompanies the party as the servant who does their menial chores, but who also sustains them with his spirit and his song. He is a person of extraordinary presence. All goes well until Leo disappears. Then the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot make it without the servant Leo. The narrator, one of the party, after some years of wandering, finds Leo and is taken into the Order that had sponsored the journey. There he discovers that Leo, whom he had known first as servant, was in fact the titular head of the Order, its guiding spirit, a great and noble leader.
Robert K. Greenleaf – Wikipedia
The 10 Characteristics of Servant Leaders are: Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion, Conceptualisation, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the growth of others, and Building community. Yes! ten times over.
Thanks to Ian Miller for his post nurse as servant-leader which inspired me to delve into the thinking of Robert Greenleaf and others who have developed his vision and out-of-the-box thinking on leadership.
As Ian says, Servant leadership is not a position to be bestowed or awarded by your peers, it cannot even be earned, but rather it is a quality of recognition, returned to you as a gift from those you serve.
Brilliant! Let us aspire to serve thus, with no expectation of reward or recognition.