2014.05.07 _ 15

Rolled out of bed and onto the cushion, where I sat visualizing myself as a statue of the Buddha and let the monkeys climb and jump about on me as they wished, like the shadows of leaves passing over a stone.

What a wonderful image for the day: "like the shadows of leaves passing over a stone".

http://wordsofawanderer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/india-637.jpg

I like Luci's field trip question for upcoming retreat:
"What did you notice and what are you wondering about?"

There is some trouble with eyes the last few days, making it difficult to be online a lot, so I'm remembering meditation instructions. One sees the Buddha's eyes half closed so that eyes can stay dewy without blinking very much. After wall gazing I often have the feeling they've taken a bath... refreshing.

So this is all I'm working with practice-wise today, and thank you for the photo link, Eos. :) edited 20:58, 7 May 2014

Contentment

These are some of the words in the poem/piece called the Music Makers by Elgar that we are singing in our concert Saturday.

We Are the Music-Makers

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.
Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy
Pretty dramatic piece...you can listen to it on you tube with janet Baker singing the solos:)

Sometimes I am flung off at a tangent from the tight orbital rein of my reading. This time it was a mention of "amor fati", which led me first to consider whether or not that was something that I espoused or embodied, and then to its relation with Nietzschism, Stoicism, and Buddhism... and so on.

I'm also reminded, from time to time during this reading exercse, of the single gender nature of this book by Hesse. Of course it describes the intellectual equivalent of a monastic order (and also brings a religious monastic order into the story), and monastic orders are usually single gender, at least traditionally. I'm reminded of the poor way women have been and still are treated in persistent religious movements, including in Buddhism, as though they are in some way not capable of understanding or contributing, or should be spending their time doing something else.

Don't know if today counts, but I watch Elize's Tai Chi web link las night furring a PaB Session with Edan

I love that poem, Luci! Gene Wilder says the first two lines in such a perfect way, in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And I think it counts, Stevie, if you enjoyed it. :P


Discrimination is invisible, until it isn't. What is saddest is the effects of the imbalance on our "whole world." A "stay-at-home" dad friend (trained as an engineer) on FB often sends photos of the meals he is making and projects he is doing with the kids, and it seems a very sad thing to me that more men haven't had this experience... for me the issue isn't inequality but inflexibility... that it is too hard to change, to shift gears, or for people to do things for periods of time and exit/re-enter various universes and marketplaces. edited 18:20, 8 May 2014