On The Up – A Little

22 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

Healing Chakras - click here for the full size imageHaving successfully navigated the doctors appointment yesterday, with the simple prognosis of a chest infection, I was looking around to see how Buddhism concerns itself with illness and healing of that illness. Those nice people at the SGI had this to say …

Buddhism teaches that illness is one of the four sufferings which cannot be completely avoided in life, whether directly or through the experiences of close family or friends.

Buddhism takes a holistic approach to the treatment of sickness, stressing both the importance of finding the best and most appropriate medical treatment and care, and also that using our Buddhist practice will enable us to summon the energy and courage needed to fight our illness.

Often facing illness can lead us to deepen our understanding and appreciation of the profound principles of Buddhism, and we find that it is possible to create something valuable out of the experience.

As Nichiren wrote:

“Life is the most precious of all treasures. Even one extra day of life is worth more than ten million ryo of gold.”

So the healing process can itself be a good case of turning poison into medicine, and the combination of chanting and modern medicine seems to be doing the trick.

Namaste ~ Anupadin

Almost The Perfect Storm

21 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Doctors SurgeryTake one freezing cold morning, make that a freezing cold Monday morning, then add a cough that just won’t go away and the remnants of the weekend’s fluey thing, what have you got? One set of challenging circumstances. Almost the perfect storm, you might say.

I like to think that, for my advancing years, I’m in pretty good shape. This cough however, is really getting a bit tedious, just ask my neighbours. So despite being a man, never taking medicine if I can help it, always letting nature take its course, I’m off to the doctors tonight.

I don’t mind, that she’s a lady doctor. She’s a professional and it won’t matter a jot to her, I’m just another sickly patient. I’m sure it’s fine, that she studied for her BSc Hons. in this millennium, that’s she’s younger than me, by a couple of decades probably, I’m sure new medical procedures are better than the old fashioned ones, aren’t they?

Now you know I’m kidding, right? My doctor will find out what is wrong with me and take steps to put it right. Never mind that the TV adverts and the posters in the surgery all say that if you’ve had a cough for more than three weeks, it might be cancer, it probably won’t be, but don’t tell me that right now.

Alright, so I’m not completely kidding. I’ve left getting this sorted out way too long and now that is worrying me. But isn’t it me who says that you should address an issue there and then, that leaving it just makes it bigger? Well here I am, hoist by my own petard, chanting for a fortuitous outcome, but wishing I had done something sooner. We will see.

Update ~ The doctor is pretty sure that it’s a simple chest infection … which is very good news.

Little Respite

20 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Cough, Cough, CoughTo my annoyance, I have again spent most of the night trying, and failing, to stop coughing myself stupid. Despite doses of cough mixture and lemon flavoured cold and flu capsules, each time I lay down to sleep, that tickle came back and I found myself having to get up to stop the coughing fit.

When experiencing failure or disappointment, frustration or illness, we tend to lose confidence and let fear overtake us. At such times, we need to make a conscious effort to move forward with strength and courage.

When we say to ourselves, “Next time I’ll succeed” or “I’m going to get better and make it through this”, we have already won.

Winter Wonderland

18 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Winter Wonderland - click to view full size imageWhat a wonderful surprise greeted us down here in Dorset this morning. A beautiful blanket of pristine snow had fallen perfectly and silently overnight, covering the trees, roofs, cars and roads, turning the everyday scene into a winter wonderland. It is always a privilege to see it before any footsteps spoil the perfection.

Of course, being a work day, it wasn’t quite as perfect as it might have been. There was still the job of clearing the car windows, and along with the other hardy souls, braving the conditions to make my way the twenty miles, cross country, to Ringwood.

Listening to the radio, experts and representatives of the motoring organisations were urging motorists to stay indoors and not to attempt any non-essential journeys. Ha !!! The biggest problem was circumnavigating the poor souls who had clearly never driven in snow before. I guess that might cover quite a few commuters down here in southern England.

Anyone reading this in Canada or North America, where they have snow several feet deep for months of the winter, will laugh heartily to hear that a mere couple of inches can bring UK roads to an un-gritted shuddering halt. But even having taken the time to clear the car, I was still in work on time. And I was the only one in IT who made it.

Some of the team come from further away than me, others were away on business, but it was clear that the rest had decided it was far more prudent to work from home, and why not, I cannot blame them for that. But it did make me think, that having lived in the Midlands for the first thirty five years of my life, then in the Netherlands, where they also have ‘proper’ snow, I was used to driving on the stuff, in fact I really enjoy it.

So as with all things in life, a little wisdom, borne of years of experience, stands me in good stead when the unexpected arrives, be that a sudden (though much announced) fall of snow, or any other situation that might befall me. In a world that is fast trying to ignore the assets that older people have to offer, this was a good example of how the wisdom of age can be a great benefit.

Cistern Overload

05 Jan 2013 1 Comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Cistern OverloadWhat a start to the day. First thing I get woken by a torrent of text messages telling me the company website has gone AWOL and needs restarting, again. Fortunately, Super Dan has written a magic little application to automate the restart procedure, sadly I had the wrong URL to get into it. Super Guy came to the rescue and did the necessary.

Having had half an hour to get the sleep out of my eyes I popped to the loo before loading up the washing machine for the weeks laundry. As the machine started I became aware of the sound of running water. Not unusual in the circumstances, but it sounded wrong. Tracing the source of the sound, I was horrified to find that part of the cistern had broken in the en-suite, flooding the wall, curtains, roller-blind and carpets.

I managed to subdue the geyser of freezing water using a few pieces of cooking foil and made a hasty call to the plumber. He said he would be round shortly, so having mopped up as best I could, I decided to make sure that my Sky box was set up to record the FA Cup football later in the day.

Now normally it would take a couple of seconds to access the EPG and set the programs to record, but not today. For some inexplicable reason the box had decided to reset itself to default settings, and it took me quite a while to sort everything out. Surely things could only get better from here on in?

The news from Dave the plumber was not the best. He was going to have to get the spare part needed to fix the problem, so although he was able to isolate the loo, allowing me to turn the water back on, it’s going to be Tuesday or Wednesday before it’s fixed properly. Still, it will take that long, at least, before the carpets are able to dry out fully.

Fortunately the rest of the day was far more enjoyable. A trip to Westbourne, including a bimble round the Mind, Body, Spirit shop and the discovery of a very tasty fig and hazelnut bread in M&S lifted to spirits, no pun intended. Then a walk along the beach, after a much needed coffee at Branksome Chine, before heading home to catch a great movie, made the horrors of the morning pale into insignificance.

Always good to look on the bright side of life. Where have I heard that before?

Awesome Animated Instruction

26 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

OogwayWatching DreamWork’s Kung Fu Panda on TV last night, not for the first time I have to admit, was another good lesson in humility, wisdom, trust and self confidence.

If you haven’t seen the film it is, on the face of it, a kids cartoon, lots of action, lots of fun.

At a deeper level, it tells the story of the underdog, Po the Panda, who is chosen as the Dragon Warrior against the odds. Nobody believes that Oogway the Turtle has made the right decision, that he was chosen by chance, even though Oogway explains that there is no such thing as chance.

Even Po is convinced that he has been chosen by mistake, and cannot believe that he is the Dragon Warrior. He is slandered by everyone, even Shifu, who is charged with training Po in the ways of Kung Fu. The other pupils of Shifu, Tigress, Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis also look down on Po, though they slowly come to see that his determination is to be admired.

After Oogway passes on, having asked Shifu to believe in Po and following a lot of learning, Po has to meet his nemesis Tai Lung to save the valley.

Lots of Buddhist principles are woven through the film, a great cast, a good watch and a fun way to learn. Look out for the sequel, inventively called Kung Fu Panda II, more fun and yet more lessons.

Onwards, Ever Onwards

13 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

Life Is A StruggleThere is no self-improvement without effort.

Without taking action, happiness will never come, no matter how long you wait. A life without peaks and valleys is a fairy tale. Reality is strict, because it is a win or lose struggle.

This is the way it is for human beings. Therefore, you should not allow yourselves to be battered about by reality but rather willingly rise to its challenges and use them as opportunities to train and strengthen yourselves.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

Keep On Keeping On

26 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , ,

Keep On Keeping OnIf you allow the passing of time to let you forget the lofty vows of your youth, you stand to block the source of your own boundless good fortune and sever the roots of limitless prosperity for your family and loved ones as well.

Please never let this happen. Only by remaining steadfast to the vows we have made in our youth can we shine as true victors in life.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

TGIF

16 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

TGIF and TBG&MFinally, after what feels like a month, Friday has finally got here. Having battled with this cough and cold all week, seemingly pretty ineffectively, it’s been a very long week. Monday wasn’t the best, but today has been even more challenging.

There seems to be some undocumented universal law, whereby the more important the task, the less likely it is, that any required hardware or software will act in any helpful manner.

I can’t remember how many times I added the new copy to the CMS before it deigned to allow said copy to appear on the live pages. It was almost as though the software was thumbing its nose to me and saying ‘Not today mate, oh no, not today’.

Of course, the marketing department were crying out for the changes, so they could launch their latest email campaign, and the pressure was on. Fortunately I had my audiobook version of The Buddha, Geoff and Me to hand, and it helped me keep my cool, stay focussed and conquer the challenge.

I love that book, you might have noticed. It’s brilliantly written, wonderfully read, and each and every chapter has a whole new bunch of lessons. It always amazes me, I listen to it rather regularly, but it never gets stale or boring, and it always gets me through tough times.

Maybe you should try it yourself and give praise to Saint Eddy of Canfor-Dumas 🙂

There Is Always Hope

14 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

There Is Always HopeFollowing on from my rant about the inequalities and lack of fairness in the way modern governments and those in power treat us mere morals, I found this piece by Sensei rather encouraging …

What can the individual accomplish in the face of the huge institutions that run our world? This feeling of powerlessness fuels a vicious cycle that only worsens the situation and increases people’s sense of futility.

At the opposite extreme of this sense of powerlessness lie the Lotus Sutra’s philosophy of three thousand realms in a single moment of life and the application of this teaching to our daily lives.

This principle teaches us that the inner determination of an individual can transform everything; it gives ultimate expression to the infinite potential and dignity inherent in each human life.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

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