Dharmavidya

25 Feb: day retreat in Malvern.

We had a lovely day meditating, chanting and meeting one another in Malvern in the first day retreat of the local sangha gathered by Kaspa and Fiona. We met at The Grove in Malvern which is a large characterful house of big rooms with very nice accoustics for chanting. The theme was "Stepping onto the Spiritual Path". Emergent sub-themes included the sense of "home", spiritual and physical, silence and stillness, the importance of sangha and openness between sanghas of different branches of the tradition. 

22 Feb: conducted the wedding of Ali & Geoff

Poems published this month

The Universalist of February 2012 published two of my poems, both from my book Her Mother's Eyes and I had a poem published in Decanto February 2012. The poem in Decanto is called Resigning Gracefully. Here it is:

RESIGNING GRACEFULLY

Being low he threw no rocks
but sat it out
just south of Andromeda
beyond the rainbow reef
listening to the wolf fish
singing to their moons.

The art of lowness
requires more research
but it's as well that we drink to it
for the sake of the remains
that he kept in his back pocket
in the purse made by Man Friday.

Low was the moon that night
and the following few days
as the silhouette of his bones
gradually dried out
while he just kept counting the minutes, thawing them one by one
between his toes.

No, he threw no rocks
but gradually faded,
reluctant as the unresigned sun
to give any show of haste
that might betray or botch
his final salute.

 

17-19 Feb: Retiro de fin de semana / Weekend retreat

Meditacion, crecimiento personal, y terapia zen en un sitio estupendo en la costa de Galicia.

 

Meditation, personal growth and Zen therapy in a beautiful location on the Galician coast.

15th & 16th February: Talks in Galicia / Charlas en Galicia

On 15th I spoke to a Dharma group in Ourense and on the 16th to an audience gathering in a bookshop in Santiago. Both talks were "El buda que siente y padece" after my book of the same name, though being in different settings the talks were completely different - as my translator pointed out.

Si eres espanol mira: http://yogasala.blogspot.com/2006/06/el-buda-que-siente-y-padece.html

17.2.2012 Compostello

Well, I reached the end of the pilgrimage trail in Compostello. Actually, I only walked the last mile - yes, I know that cheating :-) but the views from the roof of the cathedral are wonderful. How close to heaven are you allowed to get? In fact, the cathedral roof is fortified and was clearly designed for soldiers to defend. Times past were tough. The old town, however, is a jewel. Ever since, according to legend, they found the remains of St James here more than a thousand years ago this has been a pilgrimage site. The town was once walled. The walls are all but gone, but the medieval streets remain.

12.2.2012: With Maestro Raf in Bilbao

Had a day of wonderful conversations with Zen Master Rafael Redondo in a very wet and gloomy Bilbao. Despite the poor weather, we had a short tour around this handsome city and then settled into a terrace cafe to have discussions of Dharma, especially revolving around the ideas of Zen Therapy, decolonising the mind, overcoming depression, Zen practice and sangha building. 

Si a vuestra vida un dia llegase el huracan (fragmento)

Poema ~ Antonio Colinas, Libro de la mansedumbre, (Tusquets, Barcelona 1977, pp.63-64)

Sólo quiero, por eso, 
deciros lo que habréis de recordar:
recordad y salvad vuestra quietud; 
si en el norte, a la sombra temblorosa del álamo; 
si en el sur, en la brisa del naranjo;
recordad cómo pasa el huracán por el junco,
y el junco no se inmuta, y el junco no padece.
Porque el junco es flexible.
Esperad y sembrad como siembra el viento las estrellas,
pues llegará el otoño de los frutos.
Si mantenéis en calma la mirada, 
si aun en la luz sois claros, sed muy flexibles, 
respirad con paz como la luz respira.
Ni el junco, ni el aroma, ni la luz, se quiebran.
Si a vuestra vida un día llegase el huracán,
si hoy llegó el huracán a vuestras vidas,
respirad en su furia con quietud,
honradamente, y esperad. 
Ahora, más que nunca, sed flexibles, 
sed junco, aroma, luz. 


. Antonio Colinas .

 

Starting February on retreat

I spent this weekend on sesshin with the local sangha at the delightful nunnery at Teror, one of the prettier, if colder, spots on the island. The nunnery itself is built in an attractive style with buildings on three sides of a formal garden, the fourth side being a hill with steps at the top of which is a platform making the hill into something akin to a pyramid. The daily routine, all in silence, began with calisthenics on the platform, continued with zazen, breakfast, more zazen and so on, plus a morning and afternoon teaching. Of the four teachings, I gave one and Master Celso three. Our talks mixed Buddhist, Christian and Sufi wisdom. The overall theme was "El Amor Consciente". In his first talk Celso introduced the phrase "donde vives?" ["where are you living?"] from the Gospel of St John as a koan for the weekend. I found the manner of bringing the traditions together skilful and illuminating. The weekend was a great treat and I felt I could have continued indefinitely. It felt all too short when we reached our conclusion on the Sunday. It was also good to see so many of my friends there. I now feel very much at ease in this group of practitioners. My Spanish continues to improve in fits and starts, though I still have a long way to go.

The sangha jewel

This week I have been again lecturing at the Maestro Eckhart Association, this time on the theme "Tomar Refugio en la Sangha". As usual I spoke partly in Spanish and partly in English. I explained the threefold significance of the term sangha:
# mystical: the sense of spiritual help emanating from the masters of past, present and future, the ancestors and embodiments of the tradition whose love is never lost;
# ecclesial: the sangha as life and work of the itinerant, homeless "sharers" who go from place to spreading the Dharma and supporting practitioners everywhere in many ways
# collective: the sanga as the totality of the community of practitioners whose life becomes a light and example of harmony and ethicality and an antidote to corruption in society.

It has been a pleasure teaching enthusiastic, friendly groups of fifty or so different people each night, and sharing practice together. This weekend we are all going away to a nearby Christian monastery in the hills for a silent retreat together.