Our choice.......

Our choice.......

Every moment of every hour of every waking and sleeping day, we make conscious and sub-conscious decisions.
These decisions affect not only ourselves, but all around us.
It is our actions and re-actions that create the situations we find ourselves facing.
These situations, pleasant and unpleasant, are of our own doing, and no one else's.
Should we not like our present circumstance, then we have the power to change.
Should we not believe we have this power to change, then we must realise we are the cause, and find the strength to change.
When we change, our entire world changes. All around us also changes.
The choice is ours.

Nathan




Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Friends and relatives ask;

Friends and relatives ask;

How was your trip to Japan?
Was it successful?
Did you like the food?
Etc etc...
The questions don't stop.
So in answer to all,
I offer the following....

What would you do if you had sold your business, moved from your home, and had no place to live!!!!!

Would you leave the comfort of what you know and move to another country and to another environment?
That would be so totally different.
You don't even speak the language!!!

What a change that would be.

Well, that's what we did.

We have not only met the challenges but embraced them and purchased a home.

Jodi saw a small booth on the side of the road. The signs are in Japanese and of course we don't read Japanese.
One sign said rice and 100yen.
There was also a 10 kilo sign.
Jodi could read those.
Inside the booth there was a chute, so she put her $1 or 100yen in the slot and put a plastic bag under the chute waiting for the 10 kilos of rice, or at least one kilo. Maybe the sign meant 100yen per kilo. Maybe not. Anyway....
There was much whirring and the sound of cogs and machine type noise. Then all of a sudden out plopped four grains of rice.
Jodi yelled, you ripped me off!
No rice and I lost 100yen.

We found out later, after complaining to a local who speaks English, it is a rice washing machine!!!!!
The farmers put their unwashed rice into the machine.
Duh!
Back to the supermarket for Jodi.

Then there is the Onsen culture.
An Onsen is a public bath house. One for males and one for females.
I don't know what goes on in the female one, but the male one is fabulous. The super heated spring water that is pumped from underground, does wonders for aches and pains.
I could hardly walk with arthritis in my left ankle and heel.
Two visits to the Onsen and a new form of massage, and I am pain free. The massage is magic.
The masseur told me, using his translator on his iPhone, that my chi is blocked causing my toe to be numb and pain in ankle and heel!!! How did he know!
He then proceeded to remove the bad chi.
I don't know, but it worked.

I love Japan, its people, culture, food, and of course the magnificent scenery.

Did I say we bought a home?

Well it's actually a ski lodge on an actual ski slope with three different lifts and some four to five meters of snow that keeps building up daily in winter from somewhere in Russia.

It's now summer so the snow is gone and it's a jungle out there, and it's warm.
The monkeys come to pick fruit by day, and at night Mr Badger and other creatures visit.

Should you feel inclined,
come over, and visit, and see
Mr Badger, and us, in person.

We have a spare room.

Nathan
Hiiragi Lodge
Ishiuchi
Japan



Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

"The path to awakening.."

"The path to awakening.."

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei is the head of Mountains and Rivers Order and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple.

He explains that ordinary mind is the path itself, and that we can only see this truth if we look through unconditioned eyes.

To understand ordinary mind,
we have to understand Tao.
To understand Tao, we have to go beyond all knowing.
So to do this, we should look to the ordinary mind,
with unconditioned eyes.

Chao-chou once asked Nanchuan, "What is Tao?"
Nanchuan answered
"Ordinary mind is Tao."
"Then should we direct ourselves toward it or not?" asked Chao-chou.
"If you try to direct yourself towards it, you go away from it."
answered Nanchuan.
Chao-chou continued,
"If we do not try, how can we know that it is Tao?"
Nanchuan replied,
"Tao does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion;
not knowing is blankness.
If you really attain the Tao of no-doubt, it is like the void,
vast and boundless.
How then, can there be right or wrong in Tao?"

At these words Chao-chou was suddenly enlightened.

My next question.......

'What are we doing when we sit in meditation?"

Practice is not mechanical, it's not a method or technique, it's not blank consciousness.

Buddhist meditation emphasises quieting the mind and incisive thought.
Ultimately we realise they are inseparable.'

Wu-men's commentary says,
"Nan-chuan shows us that the tile is disintegrating, the ice dissolving and no communication is possible."
"This is true intimacy" he said.

"Hundreds of flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
A cool breeze in summer,
and snow in winter,
If there is no vain cloud in your mind,
For you it is a good season."

When Wu-men wrote this poem, he was talking about a life well lived, full and free, attending to what is needed but without a cloud in the mind.

The final question....

"What is Tao?"

It is at the very heart of Zen practice.
Tao means a passage, a path, a way. It also means the essential truth, or the underlying principle of our universe.

In Buddhism the path to awakening is not separate from enlightenment itself. As we travel the path, we practice living as an awakened person.
We tend to think of practice as a preparation for a time that hasn't arrived, however there is no future moment that we are preparing for.
Practice is living, cultivating virtue is being virtuous.
Practice is life.

Sensei tells us;
"The way is vast and boundless.
The way is not apart from this mind. Study, train, and realise your original mind, the mind of all beings, sentient and insentient."

My thanks to
'Buddhadharma,
The practitioners quarterly.'

Metta
Nathan



Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Thus I have heard:

Thus I have heard:

The Buddha said;

If you speak or act with a kind
bright heart, then happiness
follows you,
like a shadow
that never leaves.
Dhp 1-2

He
insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me,--
for those who brood on this, hostility isn't stilled.

He
Insulted me
hit me
beat me
robbed me,--
for those who don't brood on this,
hostility is stilled.

Hostilities aren't stilled
through hostility,
regardless.
Hostilities are stilled
through non-hostility :
this, an unending truth.

Unlike those who don't realise
that we are here on the verge
of perishing,
those who do,
their quarrels are stilled.
Dhp 3-6
..................

"Did you know that some people just exist to spoil others joy?
Ones whole life should not be dictated to, or even bullied by another, albeit someone mentally ill.

I suppose when one sees ones time is finishing, fear starts to take over. Unfortunately there are those who refuse to accept that this type of suffering can be overcome.
What to do?

Mental illness is so sad.
To be compassionate,
so hard.
What a lesson!

When we learn to let go of the minds rubbish, we start to see reality. We don't add extra rubbish, to the rubbish,
that's already there.

"Why does this happen to me?
What's wrong with me?
Maybe it's my fault?"
Etc, etc, etc.

We let go and avail ourselves of the wonders that are around us.

So......

"Out of every seed of adversity, comes a benefit."

When we sow seeds,
we reap huge benefits.
Hostility is stilled,
Quarrels are stilled.
Metta
Nathan
..............


Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Thank you...

Thank you...

It's been a joyous fifteen years
working with Master Jodi at her Feng Shui shop at the Queen Victoria Market.
After much deliberation, Master Jodi has finally sold the shop, to a most capable and talented couple, Katina and Allan Hamilton.

I thank all the wonderful friends and customers that I have been blessed to meet through the shop, and feel graced by your presence.

From the 'bag lady' who visits twice a week to remind me that 'they' are watching.
To the lady who asked 'how much are the $5 Buddhas?'
To the man who just stands and stares at the ceiling for a full three minutes and then leaves.
To the miscreants and addicts,
I love you all.

My friends new and old;
A huge thank you for keeping me young and entertained.

To Master Jodi for allowing me to help in the shop 'Without Pay'

I thank the Market for all its heritage, tradition and a seemingly total lack of management, albeit they have been most kind to us.

Finally to the amazing young Chinese helpers, who without your help and guidance I would not have had the cultural knowledge.

We are blessed to live in a society that encompasses most beliefs and religions.
It is in this world that we have stood out as a beacon for Feng Shui and Chinese culture.

To the wonderful folk who have taken over our work, Katina and Allan, may you be guarded and guided.

May you all be as blessed,
as we have, with the joy and happiness, working in this great environment.

Thank you, and please keep in touch through email or Facebook.
With Metta
Nathan





Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Attachment.....

Attachment.....

We are going through massive changes right now.
Jodi's business has been sold and the last day is this Sunday.
Our home of fourteen years has also been sold and we leave on Monday for overseas.

The cleaning out in our life, of what's unnecessary, has been most rewarding. The feeling of letting go of attachments has given us great relief.

Of course our friends and family are now offering advice of what we should do next.

One friend advised that we should cleanse our minds of panic of not having a base to call home.
This they determined would be achieved by prayer.
Another said we should try meditation.
This clears the path, they said.
So in answer to all those caring sharing folk, I offer the following;

Attachment....
The purpose of prayer, meditation, or going to a Temple of any faith, is to free ourselves from our agitated uncontrolled state of mind.
We only free ourselves when we stop attaching ourselves to things that happen.
When we release the delusions, the fears, the past or the future, then peace prevails.
We believe we receive peace and harmony in the presence of The Divine or some other entity other than ourselves.
...................

So, there was a wealthy man who had three sons and he loved them dearly.
He didn't know who to entrust his business to when he leaves his present life.
He was wealthy for a reason,
he was clever.
He gathered his sons together and told them;
"Here is a room, empty, absolutely empty.
Please fill it, to represent how you will run my business.
The one who does it to my satisfaction, will take over when I am gone."

The first son, the eldest, filled the room with earth.
He told his father that this represented his earthiness.

The second, middle son, filled the room with paper.
He told his father that this represented the money he would make.

The father said to the first son "thank you, your earth represents objects of clutter, earthiness, but it is messy.
Clutter leaves a home empty and it loses it's attractiveness with time."

To the second son, he said
"thank you, your paper represents stocks, bonds, shares, but has no real relationship to family.
On paper, you are a millionaire, in real terms, you have no friends, no true joy,
a lonely life.

The youngest son had not filled the room with anything but a candle.
When the father saw this,
he was most pleased.
He said, "thank you my true wise son.
You know how to fill a vacuum.
All emptiness needs light,
a candle of light,
a candle of joy.
The candle of inner peace,
to fill our homes and lives with light and joy and love."

The lesson we learn from this Dharma is not to fill our lives with attachment to anything,
other than light, joy and love.

Nathan.


Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

A Kings Dream........

A Kings Dream........

One night, in a dream,
the king saw death.
He was so afraid,
he asked death;
"Why are you in my dream,
why are you frightening me?"
Death replied; "I have come to tell you that tomorrow at sunset I will come to get you, so get ready and it's out of compassion I tell you, so you have time to prepare."

The king was so shocked,
that in the middle of the night,
he called his ministers and asked them to find people who could interpret the dream.
The king asked them what could be done as time is short and maybe the dream is true.

So the dream interpreters and scholars came with big books, and started to discuss,
dispute and argue.
The sun was already up and the king was getting more worried by the minute.

An old trusted servant came to the king and whispered;
"Don't be foolish your majesty,
these scolars will never find the answer, they will argue for ever.
I suggest you leave the palace since death visited you here,
if you are not here, then death may not find you.
By sunset you can be far away."

The logic seemed right.
So he left the palace.

The king had a fast horse and he travelled far, and by sunset he had reached a beautiful tree.

He patted the horse and said
"You did well and we have come so far, death will never find us here."
As he was patting his horse,
the king felt somebody standing behind him.
He turned and he saw death laughing.
"Why are you laughing,"
asked the king?
Death answered,
"I was worried because you were destined to die under this tree and I wondered how you would get here in time.
Your horse did well.
I came to you in your dream last night, as I wanted you to escape from the palace.
You have come so far and only one day left, your horse did well."
As death said this, he touched both king and horse, and they passed into their next life.
......................

Wherever we go, death is waiting for us, in all directions,
in all places.
We know this is unavoidable, but the mind starts to spin some stupid ways to avoid death.
We want our lives to last forever,
in perfect health, with lots of money.

Our prayers go out to all misguided souls who do not follow the way of natural occurrence.

We must realise we are guarded and guided.

The more we practice and cultivate, the happier and more successful our lives become and death does not enter our thoughts.

Thanks to our practice,
all is well.

Nathan.





Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love