25 / 10 / 2015
VAPOUR TRAILS
IN EVENING SKY
TWO BIRDS
*
* * * * * * * * *
bernard hemensley
GOLDY HERMITAGE
**********************
Sunday 25 October 2015
Tuesday 6 October 2015
MY REPORT FROM "THE BLUE RADDLE" IN DORCHESTER for K.
On my way from "Herring's", at the Top-of-Town in the rain, down High West Street, circuitously to "Waitrose", i called-in at "The Blue Raddle" for a drink. There was a hand-written sign on the door to greet and, in a way, reassure one, of the more traditional ambience of this pub :-
SORRY,
NO STAG
OR
HEN PARTIES!
Ostensibly, i had come to Dorchester to buy some hand-made papers for a forthcoming project i've been slowly assembling. That, having been accomplished at my first port-of-call, i thought i'd drop-in at the said Public House.
Lou was, once again, behind the lunchtime bar. She had not been there on our last springtime visits. In fact, i'd not seen her for a good little while. i am not a regular of the "Raddle" but i do frequent it as regularly as i do any pub in hometown-Weymouth...but that's not saying so very much!
A half of Oliver's Perry (6%), from Herefordshire.
i sat and relaxed with my drink and felt agreeably lulled by the alcohol and the gentle buzz and murmurings of some dozen or so of the mid-day crowd. It was two-fifteen and the rain had abated, the sun was shining warmly, and it was very bright, both inside and out. The drayman arrived in a truck, delivering kegs with a thump onto the pavement and then rolling them quickly past the bar entrance to the cellar. "It would've been horses at one time", said a man at the bar, to the driver, (Poor Old Tired Horse, i thought!) who had come-in for his delivery-note to be signed, and was happy to talk shop over a drink of Coke. October, and he was still in shorts.
About a half-hour over a half-a-pint of Perry and my head and cheeks felt hot and probably as red as a rosy English apple, (but it's pears that constitute Perry.)
Lou asked me if i liked the drink. "Very much", i said, while donning my flat-cap again and zipping-up my jacket, said "Cheers" to her, and exited.
The fresh air outside was a welcome blessing and it was raining. But it was sunny in Weymouth, when the number ten bus i was on, pulled-in at The Esplanade stop, not before having taken some extra passengers aboard at Upwey, the previous bus back to Weymouth having broken-down. A not so unusual occurrence!
* * *
b.h.
GOLDY HERMITAGE
6 / october / 2015
*****************
Friday 11 September 2015
THE POET TODAY, NOTWITHSTANDING ALL THE DISCOVERIES OF SCIENCE, AND THE ACCUMULATED LEARNING OF MANKIND, ENJOYS NO ADVANTAGE OVER HOMER. (Henry David Thoreau)
"Where is the literature which gives expression to Nature? He would be a poet who could impress the winds and streams into his service, to speak for him; who nailed words to their primitive senses, as farmers drive down stakes in the spring, which the frost has heaved; who derived his words as often as he used them - transplanted them to his page with earth adhering to their roots; whose words were so true and fresh and natural that they would appear to expand like the buds at the approach of spring, though they be half smothered between two musty leaves in a library - aye, to bloom and bear fruit there, after their kind, annually, for the faithful reader, in sympathy with surrounding Nature."
* * * * *
[The above text, is, of course, by Henry David Thoreau. It was written circa 1850/60. It struck a chord with me, as i'm sure it did my father, a little bit of an antiquarian when it came to literature and the arts, from whose little Penguin Edition book, sent to him from Australia, by Retta, in 1999, i copied-out this paragraph. My father said he did not care for "modern poetry". The most modern he got was to read the poetry of Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, due to the fact that we moved to Dorset, from Hampshire, in 1986. He was not interested to browse through my own library, under his own roof. i note this, not to disparage, simply to give you, the blog reader, a little background snapshot. i am so pleased that these books of his find a friendly place amongst my own. And i feel there are worthy contemporary poets whom Thoreau would applaud, just as i applaud Thoreau himself, writing some 160 years ago.]
[The present-day Goldy Hermitage was my father's house from 1986 to 2006.]
*
bernard hemensley
11 / September / 2015
*********************
Wednesday 9 September 2015
MY REPORT FROM BRIDPORT for K.
The tanned guy alongside me with a woman looking like an original member of Kerouac's rucksack-revolutionaries now moreso a man-of-the-world but weary in late afternoon heat said he was Swiss in answer to my question and the accent he said was swiss-german.
i played a long shot and asked if he knew of swiss poets & poetry.
A little he answered.
Have you heard of Franco Beltrametti i asked.
Yes he said.
He said YES!!!
What are the odds of THAT i thought. i'm here at the Bus Station in Bridport in Dorset waiting for almost an hour for a bus to little ol' Weymouth and the guy alongside sharing a dilapidated wooden bench knows of Franco Beltrametti! In fact he's been to Riva San Vitale. We know the same references. We know the same names. Snyder. Kyger. Koller. Welch. He's met William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg....etc...etc..
i ask him his name.
BERNHARD he says.
BERNHARD!
His name is Bernard with an "H".
My name is Bernard H.
Ha ha haaaaaa!
Such a happenstance.
What are the odds?
A chance in a million.
But chance is the nature of all connections throughout all of time.
Life is a chance.
To be born in human form is more than chance it is truly miraculous.
Synchronicities abound if we have but the eyes to see.
One vast Indra's Net of connectivity that touches and links everything.
There was an accident on the bus route on the road at Chideock. Thus all the buses were delayed and i ended-up sitting beside a "retired" poet who would not tell me his surname who knew of an obscure poet called Beltrametti as did i. We had also both published him.
This did not "happen for a reason" as some people like to think. i am not of that persuasion.
Life happens said Robert Frost.
It just happens.
Bernhard said he would email me.
We shook hands as he and "his" woman got-on the first bus out of there to Lyme Regis as they'd done enuf waiting and looked so wor(l)d weary.
And i was scared shitless sitting upstairs on a bus travelling at the speed-of-sound in the opposite direction to Dorchester a few minutes later.
i played a long shot and asked if he knew of swiss poets & poetry.
A little he answered.
Have you heard of Franco Beltrametti i asked.
Yes he said.
He said YES!!!
What are the odds of THAT i thought. i'm here at the Bus Station in Bridport in Dorset waiting for almost an hour for a bus to little ol' Weymouth and the guy alongside sharing a dilapidated wooden bench knows of Franco Beltrametti! In fact he's been to Riva San Vitale. We know the same references. We know the same names. Snyder. Kyger. Koller. Welch. He's met William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg....etc...etc..
i ask him his name.
BERNHARD he says.
BERNHARD!
His name is Bernard with an "H".
My name is Bernard H.
Ha ha haaaaaa!
Such a happenstance.
What are the odds?
A chance in a million.
But chance is the nature of all connections throughout all of time.
Life is a chance.
To be born in human form is more than chance it is truly miraculous.
Synchronicities abound if we have but the eyes to see.
One vast Indra's Net of connectivity that touches and links everything.
There was an accident on the bus route on the road at Chideock. Thus all the buses were delayed and i ended-up sitting beside a "retired" poet who would not tell me his surname who knew of an obscure poet called Beltrametti as did i. We had also both published him.
This did not "happen for a reason" as some people like to think. i am not of that persuasion.
Life happens said Robert Frost.
It just happens.
Bernhard said he would email me.
We shook hands as he and "his" woman got-on the first bus out of there to Lyme Regis as they'd done enuf waiting and looked so wor(l)d weary.
And i was scared shitless sitting upstairs on a bus travelling at the speed-of-sound in the opposite direction to Dorchester a few minutes later.
* * *
bernhard hemensley
GOLDY HERMITAGE
09 / 09 / 2015
***************
Tuesday 8 September 2015
MY REPORT FROM GREENHILL BEACH for K.
Cross-legged on the stones mountainbike on its side absorbed by bluegreen sea & small white rolling surf that crests the waves and there's a whooshing sound not as sonorous as at Chesil it's a gentling whoosh that's comforting with its regularity over the stones.
There's a group of 6 people to my right not so far away that i don't know what's going-on with a casual glance or two but i cannot hear voices not even from the 3 babies 2 can negotiate the pebbles to the water unaided while the youngest other crawls mighty fast only to be retrieved before getting to the sea i mused that maybe they were Mormons the man had a big beard it was hard to say which of the babies was with which of the 2 young women or if they indeed were all his the man went swimming plunged-in quickly without changing or stripping-off his shorts & "T" shirt then changed into fresh things when he returned after a few minutes and laid-down on his back in the sun.
3 seagulls in view and white sails far away and some sorts of vessels glinting indicating their presence nothing else to inform the eye that there is anything even there.
Clouds accumulating ringing the bay from the hills but the sun should see-out the afternoon and early evening without any interference.
Elderly man instructs child on the art of skimming stones that bounce on the waters while an elegantly dressed blonde snaps fotos lovingly but the exercise is soon terminated as the child does not appear to have the co-ordination required and they joggle up the beach to their café only to return a few minutes later and repeat the performance & 2 passing pale shirtless teens trying to light-up roll-ups in the breeze pitch a few stones hurriedly with equally no real aptitude.
i look-up from my hurried scribbling to see a paddle steamer out at sea i do believe it's of the Red Funnel Line with 2 red white and black striped funnels it's halfway across the bay and so far-out i could easily have missed it i see a yacht cross its bows at extremely close quarters but it's hard to gauge from the shore at such a distance and by how far it missed i do not know.
i've been here about 1 hour i've eaten my 2 mandarins i've read a little more of the little book by Thoreau (Walking) i brought with me and earmarked a passage to post on my blog and it's relatively peaceful and uninhabited on this part of the long beach and i think Riley would've equally enjoyed a life such as this!
There's a group of 6 people to my right not so far away that i don't know what's going-on with a casual glance or two but i cannot hear voices not even from the 3 babies 2 can negotiate the pebbles to the water unaided while the youngest other crawls mighty fast only to be retrieved before getting to the sea i mused that maybe they were Mormons the man had a big beard it was hard to say which of the babies was with which of the 2 young women or if they indeed were all his the man went swimming plunged-in quickly without changing or stripping-off his shorts & "T" shirt then changed into fresh things when he returned after a few minutes and laid-down on his back in the sun.
3 seagulls in view and white sails far away and some sorts of vessels glinting indicating their presence nothing else to inform the eye that there is anything even there.
Clouds accumulating ringing the bay from the hills but the sun should see-out the afternoon and early evening without any interference.
Elderly man instructs child on the art of skimming stones that bounce on the waters while an elegantly dressed blonde snaps fotos lovingly but the exercise is soon terminated as the child does not appear to have the co-ordination required and they joggle up the beach to their café only to return a few minutes later and repeat the performance & 2 passing pale shirtless teens trying to light-up roll-ups in the breeze pitch a few stones hurriedly with equally no real aptitude.
i look-up from my hurried scribbling to see a paddle steamer out at sea i do believe it's of the Red Funnel Line with 2 red white and black striped funnels it's halfway across the bay and so far-out i could easily have missed it i see a yacht cross its bows at extremely close quarters but it's hard to gauge from the shore at such a distance and by how far it missed i do not know.
i've been here about 1 hour i've eaten my 2 mandarins i've read a little more of the little book by Thoreau (Walking) i brought with me and earmarked a passage to post on my blog and it's relatively peaceful and uninhabited on this part of the long beach and i think Riley would've equally enjoyed a life such as this!
* * *
bernard hemensley
GOLDY HERMITAGE
8 / SEPTEMBER / 2015
***************
Sunday 30 August 2015
SUNDAY MORNING POEM
JUST SIT
WHILE SITTING
SO PLEASANT
IS THE
BIRD'S SONG
ONE HOPES
FOR MORE
*
WHILE WAITING
PASSING CAR
PUNCTUATES
THE MORNING'S
SUPPOSED REVERIE.
*
bernard hemensley @ GOLDY HERMITAGE
SUNDAY / 30 / AUGUST / 2015
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WHILE SITTING
SO PLEASANT
IS THE
BIRD'S SONG
ONE HOPES
FOR MORE
*
WHILE WAITING
PASSING CAR
PUNCTUATES
THE MORNING'S
SUPPOSED REVERIE.
*
bernard hemensley @ GOLDY HERMITAGE
SUNDAY / 30 / AUGUST / 2015
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tuesday 11 August 2015
IN THE LAP OF THE GODS for Ken Trimble
AMONGST
BUDDHAS
PLEASANT ENUF
BUT
THE SUN'S
NOT DELIVERED
THE GOODS
THESE
AUGUST
SUMMER DAYS
AS IT
MELTS
INTO THE
WATERY GREY
DILUTION
OF THIS
EVENING'S SKY.
THERE THERE...
DON'T
UPSET YOURSELF.
NO BETTER
DAYS
THAN THESE.
IT'S
ALL IN
THE LAP
OF THE GODS.
THE SKY'S
UNTROUBLED
BY
HIGH-FLYING
BIRDS.
THE GRASS
IS
JUST AS
JUST AS
GREEN HERE
AS ANYWHERE
AS ANYWHERE
&
EVERY DAY
IS A
GOOD DAY.
THERE THERE...
bernard hemensley
11 / august / 2015
***************
MORNING REPORT FROM WEYMOUTH FOR "K" IN THE ANTIPODES AND THOSE READERS OF THIS BLOG WHO HAVE TUNED-IN FROM SOUTH KOREA, JAPAN AND PORTUGAL, OF LATE.......BUT WHO ON EARTH ARE THEY, "K"? IF ONLY THEY WOULD LEAVE A TRACE OF THEIR HAVING VISITED.......
MS."X" did not go all the way into town on the only bus of the morning that takes this route thru GOLDCROFT ROAD. We used to have a regular service with a big company but not any longer for a year or more now. The numbers of passengers did not warrant a bus service they said and cancelled.
MS."X" got off the bus just a few yards down the road but not before she had regaled the bus driver and most of us passengers with a monologue of her comings and goings for today and the next few days. Right now she had a doctor's appointment. Never mind if she was running late or if she was holding-up the progress of the bus and the schedules and timings of others. A good soul none-the-less said a fellow passenger afterwards.
WHEN WE ARRIVED in town at the esplanade there was a vividness of dark-blue and light- blue sails of racing-dinghys to greet the eye. Everything in sharp relief under the bright light and grey airy sky. How wonderful that the gloomy forecast that WEYMOUTH TOWN CENTRE would be underwater by the turn of the millennium by the environmentalists did not materialise. We still have all this every day. And geese flying south....
ON MY WALK HOME i saw a "V" formation of geese flying in the direction of "RADIPOLE LAKE". i had had an early autumn kind of feeling a few days ago especially in the absence of any good run of hot day after hot day. Nor were there any lovely balmy evenings when the breeze wafts warm before nightfall and our thoughts turn towards chilled beer and cocktails.
AH WELL, HERE'S ANOTHER OLD WEATHER PATTERN PREDICTION FOR YA : COOLER SUMMERS AND MILDER WINTERS. i would say that seems to hold true for Weymouth as far as i'm concerned.
MS."X" got off the bus just a few yards down the road but not before she had regaled the bus driver and most of us passengers with a monologue of her comings and goings for today and the next few days. Right now she had a doctor's appointment. Never mind if she was running late or if she was holding-up the progress of the bus and the schedules and timings of others. A good soul none-the-less said a fellow passenger afterwards.
WHEN WE ARRIVED in town at the esplanade there was a vividness of dark-blue and light- blue sails of racing-dinghys to greet the eye. Everything in sharp relief under the bright light and grey airy sky. How wonderful that the gloomy forecast that WEYMOUTH TOWN CENTRE would be underwater by the turn of the millennium by the environmentalists did not materialise. We still have all this every day. And geese flying south....
ON MY WALK HOME i saw a "V" formation of geese flying in the direction of "RADIPOLE LAKE". i had had an early autumn kind of feeling a few days ago especially in the absence of any good run of hot day after hot day. Nor were there any lovely balmy evenings when the breeze wafts warm before nightfall and our thoughts turn towards chilled beer and cocktails.
AH WELL, HERE'S ANOTHER OLD WEATHER PATTERN PREDICTION FOR YA : COOLER SUMMERS AND MILDER WINTERS. i would say that seems to hold true for Weymouth as far as i'm concerned.
*****
i AM STANDING looking at the skies from the corner of Goldcroft and Heathwood. i am leaning on a brick gate-post (not a lamp-post!)......or rather i am writing this down in my notebook using the pillar as a desk. A neighbour i greeted in town earlier buying his newspaper in W.H.SMITHS scootles past on his motorised transport on the pavement across the road from me. He flies past before i realise. A dribble of cars exceed the 20 mph speed limit as usual. There is a slight increase in the incidence of rain drops while the sun struggles with its luminosity from its place amongst the clouds. The hot and sunny day has not yet come to pass and it's already mid-day and ANOTHER "V" FORMATION is flying in a southerly sort of direction towards the lake........
*******
bernard hemensley
GOLDY HERMITAGE
11 AUGUST 2015
*************
Saturday 8 August 2015
3 POEMS ON THE MUDDY ROAD
(ONE)
A ZEN TEXT
CANNOT HOLD THE EYES
WHEN A WOMAN PASSES-BY
EVEN FOR JUST A MOMENT
(TWO)
INTRACTABLE VISIONS
OF THE MARKET-PLACE
SUMMER FRUITS
(THREE)
A HEAVY LOAD
TO CARRY HOME?
BUDDHA WANTS TO KNOW
WHAT IS THIS?
* * * * *
bernard hemensley
GOLDY HERMITAGE
08 / 08 / 2015
*****************
Thursday 30 July 2015
NIGHT SITTING AT THE HERMITAGE after KRIS HEMENSLEY/ for KRIS HEMENSLEY
What is trapped in the streetlight
is a solitary figure
yet he sits with all beings
in the ten directions
there are no sudden moves
or gesticulations
other than the occasional
twirling of a flower.
In the hermitage
we sit by day
and by night
we are aware of our breaths
but we do not count them.
Today i
went to the beach
in case there were fishermen
i did not have a lady beside me
but i had my bicycle to lean on.
Tonight i
sit quietly
there is a full moon
and a sky full of stars
i long for my bed
to sleep and to give
my dreams free reign.
i light my lantern
as they do in Antibes
and climb the stairs...
*
bernard hemensley @ Goldy Hermitage
2 a.m. 31st. july 2015
*********************
is a solitary figure
yet he sits with all beings
in the ten directions
there are no sudden moves
or gesticulations
other than the occasional
twirling of a flower.
In the hermitage
we sit by day
and by night
we are aware of our breaths
but we do not count them.
Today i
went to the beach
in case there were fishermen
i did not have a lady beside me
but i had my bicycle to lean on.
Tonight i
sit quietly
there is a full moon
and a sky full of stars
i long for my bed
to sleep and to give
my dreams free reign.
i light my lantern
as they do in Antibes
and climb the stairs...
*
bernard hemensley @ Goldy Hermitage
2 a.m. 31st. july 2015
*********************
Saturday 18 July 2015
For 40-odd years i have felt ill-will towards CHRISTMAS HUMPHRIES, who, at the 1971 Summer School of THE BUDDHIST SOCIETY, of which he was the PRESIDENT, or was it the CHAIRMAN? Anyway, he was a HIGH-COURT JUDGE, to boot and answered my questioning after his lecture on ZEN, that, FOR SUCH PEOPLE THERE WILL BE NO MORE SUMMER SCHOOLS! The "problem" was that i was looking to hear something practical, and he was talking as an academic....today ZEN...yesterday TIBETAN....i became entangled between this and that as a "young" 23-year-old...unheeding of my friend's mother's injunction to stick to poetry, for now, i conflated different systems. 44 years later, travelling back from DORCHESTER to WEYMOUTH, on the NUMBER 10 BUS,this evening, i realised that the great confirmation and encouragement i felt, at that time, by the JAPANESE MONK saying = DON'T LISTEN TO THAT MAN, regarding HUMPHRIES, as we sat side-by-side before after-lunch-meditation, was misplaced. For 44 years i held-on to DON'T LISTEN TO THAT MAN. But Chrismas Humphries was correct. i never did go to the BUDDHIST SUMMER SCHOOL again, out of choice. And the Japanese Monk was also correct = BE A LAMP UNTO YOURSELF. [Golden Goji Hermitage : 18 / JULY / 2015]
Monday 8 June 2015
thinking of dogen / all afternoon / drinking clouds / from a teacup / tonight / a "moon in a dewdrop"
golden goji hermitage
8 / june / 2015
******************
thru kitchen window / a bullfinch / as colourful / as supper's soup / simmering on stove
golden goji hermitage
8 / june / 2015
*******************
Friday 29 May 2015
is it enuf to just sit quietly? should one obey the intelligence of what arises from our sitting or contemplations? after supper in sunlight, i was "just sitting".......very relaxed, very peaceful after Debussey preludes for piano on the stereo......and i remembered the nepalese paper my friends had given me......now was the time to use it. i used the papers, glue, oil pastels and ink and intuitively came-up with artwork #1. i then returned to "sitting" after packing everything away............ very soon the thought for #2 arose.......go with the flow, go with the flow..........."SITTING"?........"ZAZEN"?........"NOTHING HOLY"/"NO MERIT" SAID BODHIDHARMA......
#1
#2
*********
golden goji hermitage
well past bedtime
29 / may / 2015
*********************
Thursday 28 May 2015
it is enuf to just sit quietly (2)
"To practice zazen is Buddhism... Buddhism is to practice zazen."
"If we see practice as a means of attaining enlightenment, enlightenment will become a kind of ideal and our practice will become a kind of idealistic practice. Buddhism is not idealism. Buddhism rejects the notion that enlightenment or happiness can be realised through intellectual effort or understanding. Buddhism states that the Truth is here, and the Truth is now. Happiness exists in sincere effort at the moment of the present. Enlightenment and practice are, therefore, one and the same. If we want to study true Buddhism, we must retain this understanding. If we want to find true happiness, we must find it in work, in action, in practice - here and now. We must find it in zazen. Zazen is enlightenment itself. Zazen is Buddhism itself. Buddhism is zazen."
(To Meet the Real Dragon. GUDO WAFU NISHIJIMA. Windbell Publications, 2nd edition, 1992.)
"If we see practice as a means of attaining enlightenment, enlightenment will become a kind of ideal and our practice will become a kind of idealistic practice. Buddhism is not idealism. Buddhism rejects the notion that enlightenment or happiness can be realised through intellectual effort or understanding. Buddhism states that the Truth is here, and the Truth is now. Happiness exists in sincere effort at the moment of the present. Enlightenment and practice are, therefore, one and the same. If we want to study true Buddhism, we must retain this understanding. If we want to find true happiness, we must find it in work, in action, in practice - here and now. We must find it in zazen. Zazen is enlightenment itself. Zazen is Buddhism itself. Buddhism is zazen."
(To Meet the Real Dragon. GUDO WAFU NISHIJIMA. Windbell Publications, 2nd edition, 1992.)
***
[a personal note on the above]
i encountered this book many years ago, and was so "taken" with it, that i wrote to Nishijima Roshi. My three or four letters were each politely answered by him. However my practice these days, accords with everything except that i feel that the zazen posture is not as vital, as some zen practitioners would have it. It is enuf to just sit quietly... In this, i have been influenced a lot by the books of Toni Packer and Joan Tollifson... by Buddhists and non-Buddhists.
i still "enjoy" returning to this book to read the chapter on Zazen. It remains a sort of inspiration... a lamp unto me, still.
JUST SIT-DOWN, SHUT-UP AND BE PRESENT.
*******
bernard hemensley
golden goji hermitage
28 / may / 2015
*******************
Thursday 7 May 2015
it is enuf to just sit quietly (1)
"Sitting motionlessly quiet, for minutes or hours, regardless of length of time, is being in touch with the movements of the body-mind, gross and subtle, dull and clear, shallow and deep, without any opposition, resistance, grasping, or escape. It is being in intimate touch with the whole network of thoughts, sensations, feelings and emotions without judging them good or bad, right or wrong --- without wanting anything to continue or stop. It is an inward seeing without knowing, an open sensitivity to what is going on inside and out --- flowing without grasping or accumulating. Stillness in the midst of motion and com-motion, is free of will, direction, and time. It is a complete letting be of what is from moment to moment.
*
Awareness, insight, enlightenment, wholeness --- whatever words one may pick to label what cannot be caught in words --- is not the effect of a cause. Activity does not destroy it. It isn't a product of anything --- no technique, method, environment, tradition, posture, or nonactivity can create it. It is there, uncreated, freely functioning in wisdom and love, when self-centered conditioning is clearly revealed in all its grossness and subtleness and diffused in the light of understanding."
TONI PACKER.
[Please note : in the above extract, from "THE WORK OF THIS MOMENT", i have taken the liberty of using the word "DIFFUSED" rather than "DEFUSED" - (page 61). i trust this will elucidate Toni Packer's intended meaning. If this is incorrect, on my part, please forgive my ignorance.]
*
Awareness, insight, enlightenment, wholeness --- whatever words one may pick to label what cannot be caught in words --- is not the effect of a cause. Activity does not destroy it. It isn't a product of anything --- no technique, method, environment, tradition, posture, or nonactivity can create it. It is there, uncreated, freely functioning in wisdom and love, when self-centered conditioning is clearly revealed in all its grossness and subtleness and diffused in the light of understanding."
TONI PACKER.
[Please note : in the above extract, from "THE WORK OF THIS MOMENT", i have taken the liberty of using the word "DIFFUSED" rather than "DEFUSED" - (page 61). i trust this will elucidate Toni Packer's intended meaning. If this is incorrect, on my part, please forgive my ignorance.]
*******************
Tuesday 5 May 2015
Early morning exit thru Radipole in obligatory wind-cheating hip-hop hoody-jacket eating banana-breakfast in the company of birds..........Swallows skim lake at speed around bridge near kissing-gate where Mr and Mrs Cox found true peace after wandering the world at will all their lives..........Blackbird and pigeon fall-in with kinhin dawdle-style meditation on this path for a while then fly-off in haste over the reeds..........A sparrow lands softly on the path ahead of me pecking amongst the brimming puddles of last night's rain...........We're en-route......... ROOT-DE-TOOT.......... [ Golden Goji Hermitage - 5 / v / 2015 ]
Sunday 3 May 2015
is truth dependent on sitting?
"Maybe one will sit forever and never come upon the truth! Is truth dependent on sitting? Upon correct posture? Upon anything?
It is dependent on nothing. That's the beauty of it --- it depends on nothing. It has no cause, no method, no attainment, no preservation. What is it?
Sitting and sitting postures do not liberate --- the brain and body can become just as conditioned and programmed by this activity as by any other.
Seeing the truth liberates --- not any practice or method. Can one see the truth of what actually is taking place this instant, inside and out?"
TONI PACKER - (The Work of this Moment)
It is dependent on nothing. That's the beauty of it --- it depends on nothing. It has no cause, no method, no attainment, no preservation. What is it?
Sitting and sitting postures do not liberate --- the brain and body can become just as conditioned and programmed by this activity as by any other.
Seeing the truth liberates --- not any practice or method. Can one see the truth of what actually is taking place this instant, inside and out?"
TONI PACKER - (The Work of this Moment)
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Thursday 30 April 2015
A certain song has it that Burlington Bertie rises at six-thirty...here, i'm usually up earlier...during winter months it means, despite the cold, that yoga and zazen, start in the dark, sometimes with candlelight...sometimes with firelight...sometimes just streetlight shining thru uncurtained windows...and so peaceful and quiet......NOW, at April's end, edging into summer, i can practice and then sunbathe in warmth from behind south-east-facing windows......TODAY, like Burlington Bertie, i rose at six-thirty...i sat and sipped warm water and lemon...then, into asana practice...then, a cup of hot chicory which i nursed and contemplated in my hands...then, zazen...and then, breakfast.....By this time it's edging t'wards nine...shakuhachi and koto - LULLABY FOR THE MOON...here and there - THE COLLECTED SONGS OF COLD MOUNTAIN......And clouds seem to be dissolving in the blue skies....[ GOJI-JI - Thursday / 30 / april / 2015 ]
Monday 23 March 2015
my name is BERNARD, and i'm a fotograffer. It all started in 1959 when i was given a BROWNIE 127 for passing the 11+ EXAM. As a teenager i created some SALVADOR DALI fotos with the help of my little brother, ROBIN. i have always taken a few fotos...but with these new fangled digital cameras, it has become just too easy to take two, three or even 400 shots in a day. But then there is all this blogging to do into the night or when waking in the early hours i immediately think of night fotos with longish exposures. A friend suggested PHOTOGRAPHERS ANONYMOUS may be of some help...i DON'T KNOW....Anyway these fotos of a recent walk thru "my" RADIPOLE LAKE RESERVE thankfully did not stretch into an all-night session as my MEMORY CARD unexpectedly ran dry. MANY THANX FOR LISTENING AND LOOKING. IT FELT GOOD GETTING EVERYTHING OUT ONTO THIS BLOG. GASSHO bernard hemensley @ GOLDEN GOJI HERMITAGE : MARCH 2015.
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golden goji hermitage
24 / march / 2015
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