Memo 1

 

I tend to jump about different forums. On one or two I have slipped into the habit of rambling on about nothing in particular, calling them "Memo's from the Pure Land". The title reflects in a way my warped sense of humour......I mean "Pure Land"?

I need to feel a sense of security before rambling away. I have problems with rejection. Despite a sense of an ambience of coldness here on this forum, I feel quite at home.

Recently after a gap of many years I began again a daily (give or take....) meditation session. Quite brief. Simple stuff, concentrating on the breath (although I think somewhere that the Buddha spoke of this leading to the highest - whatever the "highest" may be) Once again I find it bearing fruit. During the rest of the day quite often I come back to the breath. The mind/heart clears. Random thoughts are interrupted and for a few brief moments you are back in the only moment there ever is - in touch with that which forever gives, if we are prepared to receive.

This morning my mental health issues were strong. Grandchildren to wake, to feed and prepare for school. My dear wife struggling as usual with mobility, yet filling the lunchboxes and getting one of the breakfasts - nutella on toast! The light of my life. But since dropping them off at school (by taxi, the bus service like most things in the UK, is disintegrating) as I have said, those brief meditation sessions are bearing fruit. I notice the sun shining. For brief moments, all is well. The road goes on, and the road is home.

On another thread here the subject of "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" came up, of the participation of Matt Hancock, a UK politician. The show was called "shit" by one (actually s***, but I suspect that I have guessed correctly..... ) I actually like the show. I think of the line from a great Robbie Robertson song, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" that goes:-

"Just take what you need and leave the rest"

....which is good advice, just so long as you know what you need (which is not always the case, which brings in the Pure Land path of no calculation, where things are made to become so of themselves; reminiscent of the advice of the Christian mystic St John of the Cross who said that if we wished to be sure of the road we walked on then we should close or eyes and walk in the dark(don't try that on most UK roads....) But I do try to take what I think is best.

Often on the show, "I'm a Celebrity" you see people in a new, fresh light, beyond the media image. For an instinctively judgemental person like myself I find this gently liberating. Those that I have pigeonholed are seen as "other", and this spills over into the rest of my life, the day to day mess and struggle, where, surprised by joy, I recognise a loosening of judgement, a greater acceptance of others as they are whatever that might be. As Thomas Merton has said:-

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

So, in a way, a shit show can morph into the beginning of love. And I think of Amida, and the vow to save all, and of grace. I say "thank you".

I think now of a book I have been dipping into lately, T Murti's classic work on the Madhyamika "The Central Philosophy of Buddhism". Very interesting. I'm also reading the latest Cormoran Strike novel by Harry Potter's creator, which is equally interesting. But Murti asserts that the Madhyamika is in effect a development of the "silence of the Buddha" in the face of all metaphysical questions. Further, that though the Dharma is quite rightly associated with "becoming" as against "being", with "anatta" rather than "anatman", it yet expounds the Middle Way which seeks to get beyond all opposites and dichotomies. The Middle Way, not a position between two extremes but a "no position" that supercedes all positions, all views, whatever. Leaving the mind free. Free to welcome Reality-as-is, whatever it brings. Which for a Pure Lander like myself, by trust and faith, I see as infinite compasdion, infinite wisdom, infinite potential.

Truth is transcendent to reason (which is in constant conflict) It can be lived but not thought.

Anyway, I have rambled and waffled enough. If anyone has had the misfortune to stumble upon this "Memo" please accept my sincere apologies. My coffee is getting cold, I have shopping to get, then later I must collect my grandchildren from school and shepherd them home. Lovely little kiddies. Though I am retired, it is all go.

But then again, any comments welcome. My own mind tends to spin off at tangents. Don't be shy. All lurkers welcome.

Thank you.

May true Dharma continue.
No blame. Be kind. Love everything.