A day of perfect weather.
Dharma at Oasis
In the morning we went to Oasis and held a serice there. Lovely to connect with our Buddhist friends. I gave a Dharma talk about Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana. hinayana is the simple approach to spirituality - train you mind and be good. Mahayana takes into account the vagaries of emotion - it is not just a matter of knowing good from bad, but of having a deeply established compassion. The mind is not trainable like a dog. It is more like half a dozen cats owned by a monkey. So Mahayana is more about emotion. Yet, even so, we have a deeper mind still - what nowadays mind be called the reptilian brain - full of voracious appetites and libidinous and survival instincts. These are not going to go away - they are built in - so Vajrayana is about achieving a co-operation with them, transforming wrathful energy into the path.
Adam then went into st Amand to collect a guest from the station. I stayed on for a while at Oasis, sat in the sun, ate cake, and chatted. Then came back to Eleusis
Medical
I then went into town to see my doctor. We had a good discussion of my condition. It seems probable that i will be on the medication for a long time - probably several years. Basically, as far as anyone can tell, my condition is stable. They will do tests after a few months to see if anything has changed. I might "get better" or I might just remain "stable". hopefully it won't get worse as long as i keep taking the tablets. There does not seem to be a "cure" but nature might do a repair spontaneously (or not, as the case may be). So, basically, it is something to get used to, but it does not impede me doing ordinary things. in fact, the more physical exercise the better, so life here at Eleusis is pretty ideal.
Insects
At this time of year insect life is rapidly increasing and in our upper room there are always flying insects whose lavae are wood boring that have a potential to destroy the roof. It is quite a number of years since we last treated the timbers, so i have been redoing some of them. it makes an awful smell so you need a lot of ventilation. fortunately, in our place, that is not a big problem :-)
Replies