Fail to Live

A guy who I deliver to came to the door with his arm in a sling. He said he had had an operation on his elbow and hadn't been to work since just after Christmas.

'I'm bored stupid, I want to go back to work,' he said.

'Get a hobby!' I said.

'I like diving, but can't go 'coz of this thing,' he said, pointing to his sling.

'Why don't you read a book,' I said, enthusiastically. 'Or write your memoirs!'

He laughed.

'What could I write? Was born - went to school - worked - retired. I could fit the entire thing on a postcard!' he said.

I thought how sad this was. This guy lives to work. He told me he loves his job, which is fine, but then he said that he's not looking forward to retirement.

What a shame how he lives to work.

When his work is gone, will he fail to live?

I grabbed hold of him and shouted in his ear for him to wake up, then I threw his letters at him and ran away like a girl.

Didn't really.

Zen

"All the causes, all the conditions of satori are in the mind; they are merely waiting for the maturing. When the mind is ready for some reasons or others, a bird flies, or a bell rings, and you at once return to your original home; that is, you discover your now real self. From the very beginning nothing has been kept from you, all that you wished to see has been there all the time before you, it was yourself that closed the eye to the fact. Therefore, there is in Zen nothing to explain, nothing to teach, that will add to your knowledge. Unless it grows out of yourself no knowledge is really yours, it is only a borrowed plumage."

D.T. Suzuki

An introduction to Zen Buddhism

(This has just blown my mind. It makes so much sense and rings a bell with what I've experienced.)

Anybody want a lift?

I asked my dog this morning if she wanted to go to the supermarket with me. Her ears pronged up, her head tilted  side to side and her tail began to wag.

'I take that as a yes,' I said.

Now, I started to debate whether to take her out for a wee first.

'I'm not going to be that long,' I said. 'Sod it.'

Something inside me was saying 'Let her have a wee', but foolishly I ignored this.

In the supermarket I bumped into my old Gung Fu instructor, then I bumped into my uncle.

20 minutes later I go back to my car to see my dog going mental in the back seat, then the front seat, then the back seat. 'Your back! Your back!' she seems to be saying.

I sit down behind the wheel, tell her to get on to the back seat and calm down and that's when I see the dark patch. The massive dark patch. I dab it with my finger - yup she's pissed everywhere.

Great.

Always listen to that inner voice!!

It seems to know what it's talking about.

Happiness

I'm always saying how my girlfriend watches too much TV, but sometimes I have to admit it pays off. This morning she saw something on the BBC News about happiness that she thought I would be interested in.

She was right.

Check out the link below.

I think it's proof of the uniqueness of the times we're living in that something like this is being advertised in the mainstream media.

Superb!

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/?success=true

Another Dimension

I've just been talking to a good friend of mine, Dan Bruce.

'I've got to tell someone, Gav,' he said, over the phone. 'I've been to another dimension!'

What followed was a long conversation about his experience waking up in a place that was familiar, yet unfamiliar to him.

He said that he didn't have a body. The laws of nature were similar to here but slightly different. 'Everything seemed lighter,' he said.

He said all day he's been looking at forms (from everything to his speakers, his body, a tree) somewhat differently than he used to. 'Everything seems so heavy,' he said.

I've got two other friends who have had out of body experiences. One of which said she left her body and went for a sprint in the field near her house. She ran as fast as she could. She said she was 'pulled' back to her body. She woke up with her physical body shaking and sweating.

My friend, Dan, also said he woke up sweating (and scared).

I've read about the 'silver cord'. It acts as a kind of lifeline. So basically, you can leave your body, go anywhere, but if this silver cord is snapped, you die - basically.

Then I got thinking about what happens when you stretch an elastic band - heat is created. 

What if heat is created when the silver cord is stretched? So when consciousness leaves the body and returns again it creates heat. If so, surely this will be able to be tested in the lab...

Would this show signs of us having a soul?

I might be behind the times here - as it already been done?

Interesting stuff, anyways.

 

The Source of the Table

"The table's existence is possible due to the existence of things which we might call 'the non-table world': the forest where the wood grew and was cut, the carpenter, the iron ore which became the nails and screws, the countless other things which have relation to the table, the parents and ancestors of the carpenter, the sun and rain which made it possible for the trees to grow.

"If you grasp the table's reality then you see that in the table itself are present all things which we normally think of as the non-table world. If you took away any of those non-table elements and returned them to their sources - the nails back to the iron ore, the wood to the forest, the carpenter to his parents - the table would no longer exist.

"A person who looks at the table and can see the universe is a person who can see the way."

Thich Nhat Hanh - The Miracle of Mindfulness

Alone with Yourself

Sit
Rest
Work.

Alone with yourself,
Never weary.

On the edge of the forest
Live joyfully,
Without desire.

The Buddha

Holy Fraction

How miraculous is every moment?

I came across this short tale in 'The Song of the Bird' by Anthony De Mello:

Buddha was once asked, "What makes a person holy?" He replied, "Every hour is divided into a certain number of seconds and every second into a certain number of fractions. Anyone who is able to be totally present in each fraction of a second is holy."

Every moment acts as a reminder that life is this magnificent thing, this amazing opportunity we have to love and learn.

I keep on having reality checks that leave me in a state of awe.

I become aware of every movement behind every movement - the stillness behind every moment.

Wow.

Stargazing

I absolutely love looking up at the stars. I could do it all night.

I've just been watching 'Stargazing Live' on BBC 2. A superb show.

As much as I like to know what I'm looking at in the night sky, there's a part of me that doesn't want to know.

I like the overwhelming sense of awe I get when I look up. It gives me a reality check. My problems seem so unbelievably small and insignificant. 

When I look up I'm not labelling the stars and constellations. I'm just looking at them. 

If I were to learn their labels will I lose that sense of awe I currently get?

Unknowing is bliss.

I don't want 'that star' to become 'just that star'.

Heartbeat

I was lying in bed last night.

Just staring at the ceiling.

Then I became aware of my heartbeat.

Then I held my wrist and felt my pulse.

I couldn't help but smile.

An overwhelming sense of awe came over me.

'I'm just about to go to sleep,' I thought, 'so whose going to be looking after my pulse when I'm away?'

Thanks for being there when I'm not.

Resist or Yield

A postman that I work with broke his leg before Christmas. He fell on the ice and broke his lower leg in two places.

Whilst recuperating at his parents' home his house got broken into. They stole pretty much everything he had, including all of the Christmas presents he had bought (and the £60 xmas tips he had received so far from the people on his walk).

This morning I got told that the nice people he delivers to found out about him breaking his leg. They got together a collection of money (the average postie, if they've been on a walk for quite a while, will normally get around £150-£200 in tips) they found out where he lived and posted it through his door. 

Very thoughtful of them.

BUT... he received a phone call from one of the lovely people on his walk asking him if he had received the collection of tips. 

He said no.

It turns out they had delivered it to number 15, when he lives at number 12. 

Oh dear.

The people who received the money refuse to give it to him.

It sounds like a period of his life he won't forget.

I just hope he's learning from it all and not thinking of himself as a victim of life's happenings.

There's always a choice to either resist or yield.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!