A long weekend workout on the woodland at the Land of Joy Buddhist Retreat Centre near Bellingham, not far from the Scottish border ... the task: to clear the brash left behind after the Sitka plantation was cut down two years ago, in preparation for the autumn planting of 1100 native trees of 12 varieties ... enabling the regeneration of a diverse ecosystem, signs of which are already appearing with Rowan and Oak seedlings sown by wind, birds and squirrels. .. a post on FB with photo (still struggling with that on here) elicits an enquiry from a friend seeking an opportunity to sponsor some tree planting ... which is serendipitous. ..
Breaks between the rather tough physical work enable some exploration of the Nature of Reality ... the Buddhist perspective having plenty to offer the topic, of course ... the question of whether folks may arrive miserable and find joy is also explored a little ... probably better to bring a modicum of joy at least, to add to the joyful ambience ... misery maybe not a thing intrinsically valid, but an overlay suffocating the joyous natural state ... still, the psychological roots of the misery often run deep, digging them out not so easy, and launching into esoteric spiritual practises prematurely is often dangerous ... especially when the practitioner becomes a guru and plays out his or her psychodramas at the expense of gullible seekers ... which happens in all traditions ...
Energy, it seems, is the name of the game ... at the fundamental level found by scientific exploration so far, all is energy vibrating and coming into form and returning to energy maybe depending on an affair with consciousness. .. tricky to comprehend since consciousness is usually ascribed to humans and the geological record suggests matter appeared long before humans ... raising the interesting question of universal mind, or Universal Mind if you prefer ... anyway at the level of human interaction energy trading is the currency of our dramas ... attention being energy and attention deficit identified as a problem, we play our games, as partners in an equal positive exchange of energy, as victims of the energy stealing of others, as vampires hunting out likely life forms whose energy we may steal ... our roles in these games the result of our psychology ...laid down in early childhood, maybe even in previous lives ...
As the summer solstice arrives, misery mongers muse that it's all downhill now, whilst another reality suggests summer is getting started and warmer weather is likely, on and off, through to September ... as for shorter days, at this latitude that will help with sleep, since the organism tends to perk up with sunlight and calm down with darkness ... not that sleep is a problem here, equanimity prevails and that is the key to a calm mind and conducive to healing sleep ... joy meanwhile, pops up now and then, sometimes whilst sleeping, sometimes awake ... mostly in response to events in nature: the heady scent of an azalea in flower, a rainbow, a river in spate, the heron patiently fishing, the snowy owl on the fence post ...
Promised politics postponed ... all rather meaningless at the moment as the long drawn out pantomime of the election of the next Prime Minister of the Disunited Kingdom polarises a disenfranchised, disenchanted populace ... the prospect of a leader to match the standards of the commander in chief of the Benighted States hopefully alerting us to the dangers of nurturing shallowness and fear of the other. .. all entertainment at one level, our continuing attention somehow encouraging the charade ...
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