Moving Mountains and Baby Buddhas

We were very lucky and greatly honoured to have Rev. Mugo, author of the wonderful "Moving Mountains" blog, attend our wedding last year. She has passed through these parts on several occasions in recent years and I find it a disconcertingly wonderful experience. To have her there at such a significant moment in my life is something which I will probably always be grateful to her for. And now she has given me a mention in her own blog! I'm quite stunned at her words but I will hopefully calm down a little. I've had a slow start to my blog and this may be the encouragement I need to really get it going.

I have been away for a few days. I haven't yet got into the habit of posting in my blog that I am going to be away. I will try to do so in the future. I was away with my wife on a yoga weekend for people with M.E. (or C.F.S. - chronic fatigue sydrome). I don't have M.E. myself but was more than happy to join in with the yoga. I need all the exercise I can get especially at this time of year when all I want to do is sit inside in the warm. M.E. is very much a physical condition. However, I am of the opinion that there is a psychological aspect to it. In fact, I think the mind plays a part on most overtly physical conditions, including my own - Diabetes. You can be given quite detailed instructions about how to handle your condition but unless you are in the right frame of mind you either aren't going to follow those instructions to some degree or they may not affect you in the intended way. People with M.E. don't generally have such clear instructions. There are a number of treatments and techniques for "curing" M.E. but there is nothing that the medical profession universally regards as reliable. This makes it extra difficult to actually know what's best to do if you have this condition. Everybody has a different opinion, so how can you penetrate the fog that comes with M.E. to make up your own mind about how best to act?

In connection with this, I have been reading a book of talks given by the founder of the OBC, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennet. She died before I had any association with the OBC so I never had the honour of meeting her. However her words live on in many places and I have found them helpful on many occasions. The text I was reading was a rather advanced subject: the "All is one and all is different". I won't attempt to explain this as I really don't understand it myself, certainly not on an intellectual level and I doubt I have the concept clear at any other level. However, one thing she said struck a chord. I'm strongly paraphrasing here, so please forgive me if I have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. In the All Is One, you may see all beings as a golden Buddha. In the All is Different, people are what they appear to be. If you see a tramp, you could just see them as a dirty, smelly tramp and maybe be disgusted by that. This isnt very helpful to the tramp. In the all is one, you may see them as manifesting the Buddha. This again may not be helpful to a tramp because how can you help such a creature? If you see the tramp as both, as a Buddha and as a tramp, then you can begin to see what this person may need.

And what this person may need may not be obvious. It may not be the best thing to do to charge in and help someone without consideration. They may be very grateful to you but you aren't giving them the tools to cope with the situation when you aren't there. I'm also aware that that statement in itself is a bit wrong. To act compassionately, you need to simply do what you feel is the best thing to do without trying to fix things. Without expecting a particular outcome. In other words, living in the moment. As you may be able to tell, I'm struggling with these concepts somewhat and have been for some years. I think I just wanted to say that the image of seeing someone in their very human frailties as well as seeing them as a baby Buddha I find very helpful in this respect. It's not yet the answer for me but it seems to be pointing in the right direction.