The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I (Bertrand Russell) should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
See Brain Pickings for the list. Number one is:
Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
I always enjoy catching up with Brain Pickings. There is always so much of interest and I especially like lists so these ten commandments by BR are rather special.
It is amazing how the days have sailed by. There have been hours of driving, a night in a hut in a garden in Wales, and this evening meeting a charming little boy of two. He has been saved the indignity of being talked to in baby talk resulting in a child who doesn’t baby talk. Happy and bright and smiling. A joy to be with. I hope his teachers of the future will take note of BR’s advice.
Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And Mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear – both what they half-create
And what perceive; well pleased to recognize
In Nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air;
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Not harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue.
There is something distinctly clean and clear about this kind of poetry – Haiku. These are reflections of our time together as a sangha last week. Thank you so much to all who came along and walked. We walked and we walked and made it back to our starting point. Three dogs included.
Thursday:
august moorland
conversations interrupted
by mud
Friday:
forty toes
dipped in the brook
all kinds of sounds
in gassho,
Fred
I’m quite busy at the moment and for the next few days as well. As is my custom at such times I will endeavor to post some short poems (not original ones like the haiku from Fred) along with a photograph from my library. That should satisfy my wish and intention to keep posting. Field of Merit, the project and website, are calling for my attention as well as other things. All good stuff.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
