Well here is a bit of fun, Moving Mountains has been nominated in the following category for the 2008 Blogisattva Awards.

Best Achievement Blogging in the First Person [as a diarist; writing of events in one’s life; offering thoughts; or by venturing out into the world, gonzo style]; 5 nominees; [blog, blogger]:
Hardcore Zen; Brad Warner
Integral Options Cafe; William Harryman
Kathmandu for You; michael smith
Moving Mountains; Mugo
One foot in front of another; Michael

I only found out about this nomination by accident while I was poking about this evening trying to see if I could still login to Technorati and a couple of other sites I’m signed up with.

Here is how I describe Moving Mountains on Technorati for your interest: Spiritual encouragement to walk the every-day Way of the Buddha’s and Ancestors within Soto Zen as practiced within the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. Offered by Mugo, a female priest in good standing within the OBC.

I’ll be on the train heading south tomorrow and may not be able to post until Thursday or Friday. In the mean time I think it is worth taking a look at the sites that have been nominated in other categories.

When I typed in a recent blog entry hose instead of host, bogging instead of blogging I knew my brain was close to the edge of optimal functioning. When I hear today that I’d mained (there I go again) a package of valuable items addressed with just a name and a neighbourhood I know for sure my brain is spent, but not completely. (I’ll be taking a break during March BTW.)

Thankfully the wonderful G.P.O., the Royal Mail, took up the challenge and delivered my package. Is that not a minor miracle of modern life? It proves that organizations can be intelligent and responsive in ways one might think have been lost in the rush. My package went into the slow lane and reached it’s destination non the less. Is there something to be learnt here?

Meditation may not be for you. It is boring, it is difficult, it is confronting. But it is also a few other things, things that I will leave up to you to experience.
Yes life is short, but it is deep.

Thanks Ed in Australia.

Walking along the lane to the second meditation period. Six forty and light is in the sky, rosie red on the rim of the Eastern moors. Gazing around, the moors to the West are pink frost. All is quiet, not a sound, no bird song, not a hint of wind. So very still, whisper still. The moors draw my eyes further westward and then WHAM! what a surprise, the moon is resting on the horizon. How did that get there? It’s a huge round orb, yellow-orange hanging in space, what a treat.

Morning moons are not sulky or moody like the night ones. At Shasta the moon over the mountain at night could have had even the hard hearted out writing poetry about loneliness and lost love. I just gazed at it in awe. But the morning moon, this mornings moon, had me wanting to scuttle back for my cameras – still and video. Silently I walked on congratulating myself for my restraint. Meditation comes first, the choice was clear, it wasn’t a struggle.

This post is for the late mother of one of the monks. Some of her belongings and the contents of her food cupboards came here today to find a home. It’s important for a deceased persons belongings to be cared for with respect and love. My teacher once said the belongs of the newly dead should not be lonely. By that I understood her to mean one should not abandon items out of hand but to give things a home where they will be taken care of. I have an old biscuit tin, which I love.

Perhaps it is good to remember not to abandon ourselves to loneliness. Just a thought.