geranium petals

Still out to lunch!  :-)

For Barry ~ Explorer of Life ~ 1943 - 2010

Barry Fraser

Explorer, Warrior, Friend

1943 - 2010

... May there be some beautiful surprise

Waiting for you inside death,

Something you never knew or felt,

Which with one simple touch,

Absolves you of all loneliness and loss,

As you quicken within the embrace

For which your soul was eternally made.

May your heart be speechless

At the sight of the truth

Of all belief had hoped,

Your heart breathless

In the light and lightness

Where each and everything

Is at last its true self

Within that serene belonging

That dwells beside us

On the other side

Of what we see.

~John O'Donohue

To Bless the Space Between Us

P.S.  For those of you who did not have the privilege of following Barry, at his blog, An Explorer's View of Life, you can do so by clicking here.

the mountain and I

An image accompanied by words from Li Po, before I go.  (Could not leave with that cartoon face on the screen!  :-)  Back in a week or so.

...a little break...

I'm feeling the need for a little break.  Will be back in a week or so.  See you then!

Buddha and Leaf

Buddhadharma

Resplendent

In the dew on this leaf.

~Issa

Zen poet

The first image is two of my photographs merged into one - a photograph of a Buddha that sits in my garden, and a photograph of the underside of a large green leaf.  The second image is two photographs and a texture merged together - the texture adding a more aged, vintage look to the latter.  Sorry that there is no dew on the leaf as Issa describes.  I thought the combination of a buddha with a leaf fit well enough with his words.

~enough~

"If the day and the night are such that your greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet scented herbs, that is your success."

~Henry David Thoreau
~~~~~~

Simple purple petals
anointed with dew
remind us now
what has always been true.

Searching and grasping
in desperate queues
forgetting daily
that just enough will do.

Balancing, protecting
and maintaining too
remind us daily
the true cost of the new.

Being and accepting,
happily making do
frees us up daily
from wants we outgrew.

Simply surrendering
 from acquiring 'stuff'
knowing each day
the sweet scent of enough.

~bz

 

potted herb garden

 

Each spring I plant herbs in pots that can sit on the deck, close to the kitchen.  Then, if it is raining I do not have to tiptoe through wet grass to collect just the right herbs for the dish - I just step onto the deck and rosemary, parsley, thyme, savory, oregano, basil, marjoram and French tarragon await me.

Nasturtiums are planted in each pot with the herbs to provide a splash of colour and edible flowers with which to decorate a salad.  As you may be able to see, I have to place the potted herbs up on a bench to prevent little bunnies from eating them right down to the soil.   Potted herbs - a little luxury that can be enjoyed every day.

Here's a delicious way to use your herbs:   Use several herbs for this concoction - I often trim tops that are growing to high or pinch back ones that I want to bush out more and use the leaves from these pinchings.  Finely chop what you have (you can choose the herbs to suit your sandwich) parsley, basil, oregano, marjoram, etc. and mix it into the mayonnaise you plan to spread on the bread for your sandwich  Everything tastes better with the addition of a few herbs!

What's your favourite herb?  I love basil - but French Tarragon is to die for - add it liberally to a potato salad.

beam

What a beautiful, sunny morning.
It makes you happy to be alive, doesn't it?
We can't let the sun outshine us!
We have to beam, too!

~Takayuki Ikkaku
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The sun is beaming and I am happy to be alive. 
Today I want to celebrate these simple things:
 
~ soft breezes
~ knowing smiles
~ sips of clean water
~ all that blooms
~all that beams
~ choices
~ quiet moments
~ little learnings
 
Are there simple things you are celebrating today?
 
 
 

...what about you?...

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the sea,
at the long courses of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars,
and they pass themselves by without wondering at all.

~St. Augustine

Still too hot? (reprise)

This is the same post as Monday, July 5th.  A reprise because it's still tooooooo darn hot.  Come.  Take off your shoes and step in this mountain stream with me. 

It's not freezing cold - just earth cool.  It's the perfect temperature for a day like today.  So easy to adjust to ... so exactly what you need right now.  Best of all the stream is shallow, so even though the water is rushing you will not lose your balance.  It's totally safe.  Walk around you may just spot the perfect place to sit or, if you dare, lie down.  The glorious waters will give whatever part of your body you immerse a cool, gentle massage. 

I am going to lie down in the stream and rest my head on a well-worn rock and let the refreshing waters wash all around my body.  Come.  Join me.  Find just the right spot for you.  Doesn't that feel divine?  All this beautiful, clear, pure, refreshing water there to restore your inner thermostat to its needed balance. 

You could even go so far as to imagine these are magical healing waters and as they wash past you they carry away all your hurts and cares.  Why you could even imagine these waters will take away everything toxic your mind and body have been holding onto for the past while.  Just relax there and let the 'healing' water do its work.

 

Remember, the body/mind cannot tell the difference between a well-imagined experience and a real one.  So give your imagination free rein, just for a minute or two, and visualize yourself being refreshed, restored and renewed in this refreshing mountain stream.

Feel better now?  Aaaaah, me too.

...I'll have to pass, thanks...

As you may have seen from a recent post, I am a frequent 'flyer' with Amazon.ca (probably Amazon.com for you).  Because, as my husband likes to tease me, I seem to single-handedly keep Amazon afloat, they send me a couple of e-mails every day telling me of other books I might find of interest ... and sometimes I do find they appeal. 

This morning I received a suggestion about a book I would normally want to purchase.  However, I am exercising some rare restraint and will not purchase this book.  Why?  You will see why in the description from Amazon below:

Psychology of Religion [Hardcover] 
(no image of jacket cover available)

Publisher:  Routledge

ISBN: 978-0-415-48876-1

Justin L. Barrett (Editor)

List Price: CDN$ 1,265.50

Price: CDN$ 1,152.20

You Save: CDN$ 113.30 (9%)

No customer reviews yet.  You be the first.
In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

(Bolding mine)

I would like to have this sort of reference on my bookshelves as I am interested in both of these subjects separately, and having been the unwilling 'victim' of one religion I am especially interested in the psychology of religion.  (The religion of psychology is a whole other interesting topic!) 

I share this valuable information about this new work, in case you, too, would like to purchase this 3 volume, 1600+ tome for only $1,152.20, by Dr. Justin Barrett.  Hurry now, there is only 1 left in stock!  Probably the only one they ordered!  I think most of us will be exploring it in a university library, if any of us ever do at all.  :-) 

I'm sure it is a worthy piece of scholarly work.  Perhaps one day I will be fortunate enough to take a peek at it.

say 'yes'

Wherever you may find yourself this weekend, may it be a place of 'yes' and love!




(This collage of little nasturtiums goes out with a special thank you to Susan W. for an unexpected, gentle gesture of kindness.)

 

summer reading

Look what arrived at my door from Amazon.com today!  If I cannot open my door to loved ones or to nature, opening it to a box full of good books is just the best.  Voila a treasure box of good summer reading:

"The Journal Keeper" and "The Book of Not Knowing" were recently recommended to me.  I am not familiar with the authors or their previous works.  The four others I stumbled upon while meandering through Amazon's seemingly limitless choices and either knew the author and was ready to read whatever they might write, or I just got lucky and knew by Amazon's description the book was something I would enjoy. 

"Buddha's Brain - the practical neuroscience of happiness love & wisdom" had great reviews so I thought I would give it a try.  I love anything Wayne Muller writes so was thrilled to see he had a new book on the market, "A Life of Being, Having and Doing Enough".  And the book, "Digital Expression" looks like it could be a relevant read after I finish my Internet course on digital editing in Photoshop Elements. 

Last but not least is "Hitch 22", a memoir by Christopher Hitchens.  I think I am one of the few people that love much about this man.  Yes, he is a bit of an intellectual snob - but I love listening to his arguments with regard to politics, religion, morality and God.  He unflinchingly stands up for his beliefs and will demolish you like a gnat if you float an ill-considered opinion.  I do not always agree with his points of view, but I am always intrigued to hear his take on any issue.  You can rely on him to be provocative and to make you think.  I just read that he has had to cancel his speaking tour promoting this book due to a diagnosis of esophageal cancer.

After briefly leafing through each book I am sure I want to keep five of them.  One I am considering returning.

Can you guess which one is on the chopping block?

Three of these books have an immediate magnetic draw and will compete for my attention at the same time.

Two others will be put on the shelf to enjoy later in the summer.  Can you guess which three are immediate must reads for me?  I will post again to share my perceptions of each book later this summer. 

What are you planning on reading during the next couple of months?  Let's construct a great suggested reading list that we can all reference.

A few hours later: 

   

Thank you to those of you who shared some of your personal reading list for this summer.

The three immediate must reads for me are the Wayne Muller book, the Christopher Hitchens book and the Digital Imaging in Photoshop Elements book. 

The book I plan to return is the Ralston Book on 'Unknowing'.  It just doesn't appeal  'in person' - and - having read most of Ken Wilber I do not feel the need to be instructed on levels of consciousness by Ralston.  It also seems a bit absurd to have to digest over 500 pages of knowledge to learn about 'unknowing'.  

I recall how indignant I was after plowing through all of Ken Wilber's material in one book for him to say in the final pages that all of the previous pages were irrelevant because everything is essentially nothing.   Grrrr.  The thing that finalized this decision, is the way Ralston has numbered his chapters and paragraphs as if they were the books and verses of the Bible.  Hmmmmm ... no thank you ... back you go.

...death of the ego...

"The death of the body is accompanied by less agony than the death of the ego, the false self. 

The death of the ego is a tearing away of everything we imagine to be solid, a crumbling of the walls we have built to hide behind. 

It means the death of everything we have learned to be, all the thoughts and projections that so enamored us in the past and created someone for us to be in the future. 

When all we have imagined ourselves to be is allowed to die, everything is seen in its essentially empty, impermanent nature. 

We realize and experience the superficiality of the separate self we have clung to so long. 

We experience the deep satisfaction of no one to protect and no one to be...The mind and heart coincide in loving surrender and clear acceptance of what is."

~Stephen Levine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am working on facilitating the death of ego ... in me.  Sometimes it lies quietly pretending to have expired.  But then it self-resurrects needing to protect and control ... again.  I console myelf *  with the thought that with a cleansing breath I can often put her back to sleep and experience the peace of no one to be, nothing to prove....the fullness of being in nothing.  For now, it is a process, a path, a remembering, a learning.  Just recalling that there is the option to step out of ego-mind is liberating. 

And so I publish posts that serve as reminders of where I need/want to be ... and hope they offer something of benefit to you too.

* Yes, I  see the typo where the 's'  has been left out of 'myself'.  Perhaps it is a sign of having loosened the grip of ego: moving from being myself to my-elf.  I kind of like that, so why not allow myself to be myelf!  One character removed from myself could mean the weakening of ego, don't you think?  Would you like to join me in being an elf instead of a self today?

...fires of hell...

I saw the fires of hell
and people were not burning there.
All that was burning was
what they had refused to let go of on earth.
And the flames were not punishing;
they were liberating.


~Meister Eckhart

Do you recall when burning in hell was a prevelant religious concept for many of us?  When churches actually taught that the almighty, loving, heavenly father would punish us forever in the fires of hell for our sins.

Now, hell seems to be an anachronism. 

Of all the fears layed out before me in the therapy encounter, no one has ever discussed a fear of hell.  It just seems that it is no longer a relevant factor in anyone's life.  Although, one could hypothesize that those who believe in a literal hell would not be inclined to seek out therapy ... Anyway, I would be hard pressed to think of one person I know who believes in a literal place of eternal fire and damnation. 

It intrigues me why certain religious beliefs just seem to fall away while others retain their grasp on our minds and hearts.  Why would we not begin to question heaven once we have rejected the concept of hell?  If hell can fall by the wayside, are there other presumed truths we need to reconsider?

Have we committed the ultimate act of idolatry by taking the symbol, the metaphor for the reality? 

Joseph Campbell said,  “Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.....the imagery that has to be used in order to tell what can't be told, symbolic imagery, is then understood or interpreted not symbolically but factually, empirically. It's a natural thing, but that's the whole problem with Western religion. All of the symbols are interpreted as if they were historical references. They're not....."

Campbell also suggests that to have a real experience of the transcendent we need to ".....get in touch with mystics who read these symbolic forms symbolically. Mystics are people who are not theologians; theologians are people who interpret the vocabulary of scripture as if it were referring to supernatural facts.

"There are plenty of mystics in the Christian tradition, only we don't hear much about them. But now and again you run into it. Meister Eckhart is such a person. Thomas Merton had it. Dante had it. Dionysus the Areopagyte had it. John of the Cross breaks through every now and again....."

In the Bible, God told the Isrealites that they must not fabricate or worship images or idols.  Apparently some Isrealites constructed idols as concrete representations or symbols of what they imagined God to be.  Then they fell into the trap of worshipping the symbol/idol rather than God himself.  

As Campbell suggests, when we take something meant as a metaphor as a concrete representation of truth, we have missed the point and are really committing a form of 'idolatry' in substituting the symbol (a teaching tool) as a concrete reality (just as the worshipper of an image or idol does).