Teachings

Good Question

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Ewbank Scar, a pleasant ramble.

We had already said the five thoughts and were tucking into lunch. Edera spoke, Rev. Mugo are you enligh…. I thought, Oh crikey! Pausing a moment she said, No, that’s not quite the way to put it. A wide ranging conversation ensued; enlightenment (sudden and gradual), staying alive, original enlightenment, why Dogen went to China, 12th century Japan, the difference in meaning between accepting and receiving. Ah, what a good conversation.

Later. Much later. Edera and I go over her today’s post on Little House. I tend to go by how written words sound when spoken. The music of speech, on the page. And the rhythm. That’s the rhythm of a sentence which is beaten out by commas sprinkled here and there. And I want to know about the proper use of colons and semi colons. she said. Oh they are about being able to list lots of thoughts one after the other, divided by commas, so you don’t need to make lots of sentences. I could almost hear Iain, wordsmith as he was, groaning or growling. But actually that’s not a bad explanation for a semi colon.

Much, much later we talk about the vital importance of commas, when to put them in and when not to. See here a joke about poor punctuation:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

‘Why?’ asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

‘Well, I’m a panda,’ he says, at the door. ‘Look it up.’

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. ‘Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.’

Less is best as far as commas are concerned. But I do like the way they add a da, DAH emphasis at the end of sentences. Let’s have more lunchtime conversations, please.

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Overcome Difficulties

Little House Lives On

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Little House in the Paddy is the place where Iain shared his ideas and kept records of his life in Japan. Writing for it was usually his first job of the day, with a cup of coffee beside him. Even when he was taken into hospital, he told me to let readers know what had happened. He would be glad, I think, for me to keep posting. The ideas will be very different, because it’s from me.

Now is the time to tell my side of the story about life in leafy Chiba-ken.

A New Beginning – Edera at Little House In The Paddy.

This step to continuing Little House is no small thing. Every success Edera with your new beginning.

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Daily Life, Teachings

Of Moscow – With Love

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In recent years, a lot of surprisingly rich archival photo series has been published on Moscow and on Russia in general. This is only partly explained by the easier access to the archives and collections of the former Soviet Union. A rather more important reason is that the interest in the city and its history has been livened up in a previously unimaginable way both at home and abroad, which created a wide public for this kind of photos.

From Poemas del río Wang blog. Moscow 1900-1960

This post is for Iain late of Little House In The Paddy blog – and so much more… Do take a look at the photos at the end of the blog sited above.

Viewing these black and white photographs this evening brings up a mix of emotion and sentiment. Excitement and mystery and rigor, honor and pathos. And an odd sense of the tragic too. All these thoughts could be attached to the way I have been thinking about goodly Iain as his sudden passing becomes less raw.

There are people who touch our lives
and there are people touched by ours.

Just sometimes these two people meet
and most often they don’t realize….

Until later.

Goodness! And there are these The Lithuanian School, photographs. They rival the big names in black and white documentary photography….

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Daily Life

Rays Of Sun Shining

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Window in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Ah Blackpool! Ah The Winter Gardens, the Pleasure Beach, the lights, the tower. My abiding memory is of losing a small boy at the Pleasure Beach. One out of eleven wasn’t so bad, but it was one too many all the same!

No lost child while on a business trip yesterday. Thankfully. Somehow with Blackpool one has to suspend all good sense and taste and simply ‘be there’ with all the glitz and fun-o-the-fair energy washing around one. Perhaps that is the charm of seaside towns, to loose oneself for a bit and enjoy the seagulls, Victorian splendor, pink candy floss and ice cream. The sun shone from a clear blue sky and The Winter Gardens were splendid. But it was the Tower Ballroom, hostess to glitzy Come Dancing, I’d really liked to have seen. Just once.

Blackpool was the favoured seaside resort for Lancashire Wakes Week. A time when mills were closed down for maintenance and the workers had a weeks unpaid holiday. Workers from Blackburn or Oldham or Stockport, living it up for a week in sunny Blackpool.

Wakes Week
There is a merry, happy time,
To grace withal this simple ryhme:
There is jovial, joyous hour,
Of mirth and jollity in store:
The Wakes! The Wakes!
The jocund wakes!
My wandering memory now forsakes
The present busy scene of things,
Erratic upon Fancy’s wings,
For olden times, with garlands crown’d
And rush-carts green on many a mound.
In hamlets bearing a great name,
The first in astronomic fame.
— From The Village Festival by Droylsden poet Elijah Ridings.

There is nothing like the seaside and some sunshine.

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Uncategorised

Remembering Iain – Reminded of Truth

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Spoken at Iain’s cremation:

When somebody is no more, whose life has gone out of them, we, who shared in that life – mourn. On all levels there is personal loss and great sadness. And so we gather together to remember what has been. We recall what the newly dead did in their lives. We remember the person that animated that life. We remember their actions – their traits – their strengths. And we pepper our thoughts with memories of their weaknesses too. And we can laugh, a little.

And – inevitably – there are silent regrets, small resentments, things said and things not said. Perhaps we remember deeds not done or – deeds unwise. How are we to find peace enough with our memories – happy ones and less happy ones? How are we to let go and move on?

At times such as this we must draw on our inner resources, be they informed by a faith tradition or not. It is said that all beings have an intuitive sense of a spiritual depth to our being. I term this the ground of our being – or our enlightened nature. Our default if you like! As fundamental to existence as the air we breath.

I’ll have a go at describing that ground, our nature as enlightened beings. The watchword is Compassion. Compassionate acceptance. And falling like rain, unconditional love. Compassion and love coalesce in wise discernment informing our actions. Compassion, Love and Wisdom. We have resources to hand. Let us put them to use for Iain’s sake, and for our own too. This is how we can help him now. Through loving acceptance of his sudden passing.

People came from far and wide to say their goodbye’s. Today at the crematorium, in Lancaster. We saw the coffin off. Later all that will remain will be ashes.

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