I’ve been talking to somebody recently who is caught up in a tricky situation, which is being played out rather publicly. Names and reputations, good ones, are being chewed on, dragged around and generally besmirched. Sad business. (Incidentally this is not in the world of party politics in case anybody was wondering.) There is no way anybody will come out squeaky clean. More arguments and counter arguments will only create more soap bubbles. What is the way through in this sort of situation? To defend oneself, to ignore the inevitable inner disquiet that soap opera produces? Do nothing ’till the storm blows over? Or, like the Manchester hermit in his blog today, apologise. One can at the very least apologise for ones own part in the creation of soap. Or ones part in inadvertently causing hurt to those concerned. As a meditator and one who has Precepts it’s really hard to purposefully, and consistently, create harm. Intention is the touch stone. Touching it regularly keeps one humble, and honest.
I felt a deep regret while meditating this morning so I thought I should say something. I take it as a sign of progress. It’s a funny thing, meditation. Very difficult to know if you’re doing it right. It’s very simple but also extremely difficult. The job is to try and stay with the truth, but I’m so beset by delusions and confusions that it’s often difficult to know if I’ve taken a wrong turn. The only way to really measure oneself is by an increase in loving feelings. This is a sign that my habitual self-centredness must be dissolving slightly and I can start to see things from other points of view.
It’s not something you can create or fake either. If you get on with the main work of patient observation diligently, it just seems to happen by itself that a spring of generous thoughts begins to seep through the ground. It’s very easy to be sitting there daydreaming, or circling round and round selfish or delusional ideas – and I’ve done that. The only way to know if you’re on the right path is if spontaneous kindness starts to break through. Makes you feel happy. Which in my experience makes it quite likely that crabby and irritable is just round the corner…
We all know bears are old softies at heart, fun loving, playful, not a fighting bone in their bodies, unless crazed with hunger of course. Reading about a polar bear playing with a husky on Hudson’s Bay Canada just confirmed what ‘we all’ know. Animals play.
And humans can do that too, given the right conditions and appropriate permissions and…food in the belly!
In conjecturing what may be, men set before them the examples of what has been, and divine of the new with an imagination preoccupied and coloured by the old; which way of forming opinions is very fallacious; for streams that are drawn from the springhead of nature do not always run in the old channels.
Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, C1X
Phew! And now I see this article. The Hermit is pondering hands… Good job I will not have the time today, or this week-end, to leave a comment! I’m helping to move a temple from one house to another. I’ll be using my hands, which by the way, are wonderfully connected to the rest of me! I hope I use them with this connection in mind.
More on hands, and working meditation another time.
Since my first retreat at Throssel in October 2008, I’ve sat 30 minutes every day, without fail.
Since my second and 1 week long retreat at Throssel on April 20th 2009, I’ve sat 2 x 30 minutes every day without fail and 4 x 30 minutes at the weekends.
Up until then I’d sat off and on for 7 years – with long periods of not sitting and longer periods of sitting every day for 15 minutes. Sometimes alone, and sometimes at temples in and around Tokyo.
There are very many blogs talking about meditation. This one comes from a person who has picked up what he learned at Throssel, and uses it. His schedule of sitting is rigorous and that’s how it needs to be for some time. Although few actually follow through and do this consistently. One important point though is to remember to purposefully skip a sitting period from time to time. Nobody has to sit, skipping a sitting is a good…sitting period!
A simple meeting to talk about our mutual interest in all matters to do with horses ended up as a memorial tea for the newly dead Olivia. A horse suffering from progressive arthritis in the hind quarters who finally was not able to rise from the ground through her own efforts. My acquaintance had done all she could to help Olivia to live out her life and had been helped to her feet by human strength a number of times. Then on a sunny day not so long ago, once again unable to get up, the decision was taken to euthanase her.
Not being able to raise from the ground under ones own efforts is desperate. Being alone, on the ground, with nobody within ear shot to help can be devastating. Once up the fear of falling again haunts such a person, unfortunately making it more likely that more falls will happen. You may know of such a person. I do. Several. Thinking about these people brings a whole level of basic appreciation for being able to stand on ones own two feet doesn’t it?
I guess I’m sitting here in wonderment at our ability to balance on our hind legs, and move about without falling over all the time! Something’s working well for us bipeds. Time to celebrate.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
