DAVID:
Full House
Eleusis is full. Susthama, Damian and their two chilren, Selena and Dorian have joined us so the place is a-buzz with activity and little voices. Together we have done a certain amount of reorganisation of rooms and spaces. We are gradually getting to place arranged so that we are better placed to have guests. Also, here, we pack a lot of stuff up for the winter months and now, although it is still cold and wet at the moment, warmer weather is on the horizon.
Pancakes
Adam has been making bread each day and today he made an enormous pile of pancakes. We all enjoyed sitting down to a big lunch of them and still had some left over at tea time. At this time of year we eat in the kitchen where it is warm so the kitchen becomes very much the heart of the community.
Getting Stronger Bit by Bit
Regarding my medical condition, I am still weak, so I can't do the heavy jobs like moving beds, so Damian and Adam have been doing that. Nonetheless, I am pleasantly surprised that I can do small jobs so long as I don't go on too long. Sitting here writing the Daily is fine,but I also have to avoid being sedentary for too long as I have to avoid blood pooling in the feet. So it is a life of continual small changes of occupation. When weather permits i get out for a short walk which is a good replacement for the oxygen treatment I was receiving in hospital!
Dharma of Carl Rogers
I try to give some Dharma teaching each day. Today I read an article that I had written about Carl Rogers and mindfulness. There is some prospect that it might get published in a humanistic magazine. I wrote the article just before I went into hospital. Of course, mindfulness had not come into vogue in the time of CR and he did not use the term. In my view his life was an example of mindfulness in the original Buddhist sense - somebody who kept a wholesome purpose in mind consistently and applied it diligently. He also examplified modern utilitarian mindfulness in that he gave acute here and now attention to his clients, but I think that in this respect this was not awareness for its own sake so much as a dimension of a purposeful investigation, and in this respect again he was close to exemplifying the original Buddhist principle.
Snug by the Fire
People write to me and say they are imagining me sitting by the fire with my feet up reading. Well, at least some of the time, it is true. I am getting satisfaction from having time to read and it is certainly pleasant to watch the flames curling round the logs - a pleasure that many never experience in our gas powered centrally heated modern world. I have read Dharma and also some essays on utopianism and am getting into a history of the English language. Nice to be snug by the fire while outside it is grey and wet. A good time to hibernate.
Replies
Adam was realy a good student! And the pancakes were not vegan at all. Adam made a big pile of pancakes for all of us without eating them himself....
Tam said:
I think Elja gave him a lesson - he is a quick learner! NAB.
All part of life's great pageant. Namo Amida Bu. :-)