Pilgrimage 4

As my walk continues up the hill toward the temple, it is a time to reflect and what I see along the way really are the things to think about in life. The first sign is a small marble "factory" that produces mostly grave markers. It is good to stop allowing the flowing river and think about that. There is no escaping it, death comes, and how will I face it, how do I face it, how have I faced it.

It is amazing to see how many of these pieces or marble there are, how many times have I been affected by the deaths of others? The first time death "appeared" for me was as a child of five when my uncle died in a hunting accident. At that time, I was mostly affected by how others had reacted to the situation. Then my first year of college my beloved grandpa died unexpectedly...it was the first poem I ever wrote with the memories of him working in the garden and I remember the last line: "And you now in a row instead of planting..." My creative writing professor and the whole class were speechless when I had finished reading it. A very powerful experience. And then my dear grandma died. The day before she had seen a rose frosted and a bit wilted in early October and had told me, "Isn't it beautiful, still there, frosted, alive..." These are often the thoughts that go through my mind. All the friends, who were so young, who I lost to AIDS in the '80's and early '90's...and so on....

Then I often come to this point and almost every time light has shone through these trees. It reminds me to look up to the Buddha with all of these questions, to keep turning and looking in the right direction....

Coming around a curve, I see this bench that faces away from the street, looking into the forest and I realize, getting closer to the temple, it is time to turn deeply inwards, to what is there, to what the Still Small Voice may be saying...

And then, just before reaching the temple is a sewage treatment plant. A very small one, but it has become a reminder for me that I am here to "clean" up the karma that has obscured and disturbed the pure clear water of the spirit that is always there. This is a most important point before I reach the point to go up to the temple....

Thangkan Interlude

Over the weekend I had a wonderful experience of taking a "Thangka Course" offered by the "Tibethaus" http://www.tibethaus.com/ here in Frankfurt. The course was led by Marian van de Horst http://www.thangka-marianvdhorst.com/!english/index.html. From Friday to Sunday we started with meditation and then moved on to work on the building blocks of a Thangka. The first step is to do the head of Shakyamuni Buddha and then the body. This is done with specific measurements based on sors, a certain measurement. There is really so much to learn about the iconograpy and symbols. They themselves become "scriptures" with all of their information. One thing that I didn't know is that when coloring the eyes, there is always a little bit of red in the edges of both sides. This is for all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and it stands for the compassion that they have for all beings and that their eyes are watered with tears for our suffering. A very nice image.

Anyway...the first drawing was my first head and then I had to learn how to reduce it in size and then one more time and add color. I'm looking forward to continuing with the seminars in February! It is also nice to learn about another tradition in Buddhism.

Pilgrimage 3

As soon as I make the turn in the direction of Bad Teinach, I follow this path up towards the temple. It's nice to have the feeling of going "up" to the temple. As soon as I come upon this path, I try to calm down all the chatter in my head and to relax any tension that I might feel. It's amazing to just take a moment and hear all the turmoil and tumult inside...and let it go. To step on the path, to step into the silence...which is not empty, but FULL and waiting...

"At such moments we don't choose silence but fall silent. Silence, like love, is not something we reason our way into. And once we are in it, we recognize that it has been there all along. It's there like the background noise of the universe, that uniform hiss astronmomers find when they point their radio telescopes at the space between the stars, the remnant of the big bang, the residual wind of our origin."

-Philip Simmons-

"The seeker's silence is the loudest form of prayer."

-Swami Vivekananda-

"Silence of the heart is necessary so you can hear God everywhere---in the closing of the door, in the person who needs you, in the birds that sing, in the flowers, in the animals."
-Mother Theresa-

"Nothing is so like God as silence."

-Meister Eckhart-

Pilgrimage 2

"The greatest assassin of life is haste, the desire to reach things before the right time which means overreaching them."

-Juan Ramon Jimenez-

The next step on my way of the pilgrimage is not to get into a hurry. To settle down and not worry about the train connections and pushing my way onto the train in front of others. Just to simply let what happens, happen. It is difficult to come to this after a week of work and being often caught up in the swirl of haste. By practicing this on my pilgrimage, I hope I can bring it into my every day. This has also been an inner quality of mine, to try to hurry on, to get something with my training. To want more now than what is given. And, of course, I have been constantly taught that this does not help. In fact, it hinders me from being with That Which Is Greater than myself. At these times I try to remember what Reverend Master Jiyu Kennet http://obcon.org/saf.html said:

"Just let it be enough to know the Unborn, and to feel It coursing through your veins. Don't try to do more. And when it is time to act, trust the Buddha Nature to guide you instead of trying to figure everything out with your mind."

So, underway, it is good to learn that it is enough to be underway. Not to be trying to arrive before my feet have carried me there. There is so much to learn, so much to practice on the way. A constant journey. Being open to what is there will also prepare me to act in accordance with the circumstances instead of acting with how I see or want the circumstances to be. There are things that will show me which way, like the little bridge that I walk across after getting off the train or the sign that points to the way in the right direction. And sometimes, just looking up in the sky I can see whether it is good that I walk or better to call for a ride. This is all practice of how to live my everyday life. This is also the practice of my small pilgrimage to the temple. No haste when none is needed. Be there with what is. Feet firmly planted, eyes open and heart looking for direction.