This morning we had a service. For the past two weeks I have been bellmaster. Adam explained it all to me. I have quite a few texts to learn by heart. I am enjoying it very much. It gives me a much stronger sense of involvement in the rituals. The bellmaster's responsibilities start before the ceremony with preparing the shrine room, cleaning the shrine, adding fresh flowers... I love it - being in the room surrounded by the Buddhas, Quan Yin and other bodhisattvas. For quite a long time we have had a picture on the Quan Yin altar of Bert, the partner of our good friend Carol who lives in Canada.
A couple of days ago Bert died of cancer. This morning as i was preparing the hall I moved the picture to the ancestor altar where there is a statue of Jizo Bosatsu (Kshitigarbha). I wrote the name of Bert on a piece of red fabric and put it around the shoulders of Jizo. This morning we had our service around the ancestor shrine transferring merit and holding a time of silence for Bert. In our thoughts we are with Carol who has taken care of Bert for the past year while he has been ill.
This afternoon, there was nothing special, but yesterday afternoon we had a special outing. We went to Cerilly to see the exhibition of the paintings of Simon Morley who is an English friend of David's who lives in Korea but spends summer at a house not far from here in France. The theme of the paintings was based on the graffiti of the 1968 student uprising in Paris. It was called "Soyez realiste - demendez l'impossible" (Be realistic - demand the impossible). Cerilly is a pretty little town with a sweet little church. I popped in and took some pictures. The light was nice. We ended this relaxed day on the terace of a cafe with another artistic friend of David's, the theatre director Derek Goldby. Then we went for a pizza at a local cafe.
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