Transmission
Over breakfast we talked about the issue of spiritual transmission. In Buddhism this has been a hazardous affair. There are many instances of people being selected as “Dharma Heirs” who have then gone off the rails, causing all manner of scandal. There is also the difficult fact that many of the Zen teachers in the USA are Dharma descendents of Yasutani Roshi, a Japanese Nazi. This all raises the question, exactly what is it that is being transmitted here.
Recognition
More generally, recognition is something that has a powerful effect on people and the power can work for good or ill - it can bring them out and enable them to shine or it can be the start of a downward slide. Elja replayed the film of Paul Potts appearing on X-Factor and stunning everybody with his opera singing and we talked about how when people are rocketed into the public eye like that it can go either way for them. I was saying that, in a spiritual context, transmission or recognition should not be a credential, it should be something that a teacher only uses when he or she is confident that it is what the person needs to ripen their faith and practice. The way that it has, in many traditions, become a step on a career ladder is a degeneration.
Geese
After a string of really wet days it was good today to be able to get outside and connect with the trees and the earth. Adam and i went out and did some work together in one of the further fields and while we were there we saw hundreds of geese flying over, heading north. I hope this means that there is now going to be a general improvement in the weather. I imagine they have some way of knowing when is the right time. On our way back to the house we sat for a while on the bench at the bonfire circle. The sky was bright blue with small cumulus clouds sailing across. Beautiful.
Retreat
I realise that I am in retreat, not as a chosen spiritual exercise, but in fact. When we went to the supermarket yesterday it was almost more than I could cope with - felt completely alien. After two weeks in hospital and now three weeks of in the remoteness of Eleusis i have lost my connection with towns and cities. My mind has slowed down in some ways, speeded up in others. It is, in fact, a wonderful time for reflection and writing. It may seem that I am tackling a wide range of topics, but to me they all hang together as different facets of a single jewel and it is a huge privilege to be able to gaze at it, now this way, now that. Or perhaps it is just an opportunity to recognise my goose nature.
Replies
Thank you for bringing in the matter of dreams. Yes, so often significant.
Love the writing on Transference of Merit, David. Thank you for bringing it up and yes, it is a travesty that some use their so called Recognition as career step ladder.
Nightly Dreams provide a portal to the other side our consciousness and with diligent attention, may provide for the dreamer the inner information, the inner Recognition of knowing she/he has achieved, has overcome layers of terror, fear, hatred, contempt etc and resolved into a more merry and loving human. This person then goes into the world, without that career step ladder, but with their own wisdom and real integrity, or Sila.
Jesus said, "By their works shall ye know them." Still true today.
They were honking a lot, filling the whole sky. It is rather wonderful when you look up and see them all beatiung their wings so hard, flying in several big V shaped squadrons.