There are times in life, when it’s very reminiscent of being on a narrowboat, when the main object of each day is to get closer to an overall destination without rocking the boat. Steering the middle way, taking no risks, trying to get to the other end without making waves or upsetting the people you pass along the way.
When you find yourself in situations where the only outcomes you can actually influence are all negative, you find yourself trying to switch off from the effects these situations are having on you. Find yourself trying to create distractions with unrelated things, which will have no bearing on the final outcome.
And this can be so very tiring. Like sitting in a room with no windows, no books, nothing to occupy your mind. Time passes so slowly. As a boy, I would sit on a lake or river bank from the first light of dawn, till the last rays of sunset, fishing for elusive creatures that sometimes never showed themselves.
I was never bored, I was so engrossed that there were times that I forgot to eat my packed lunch. Those summer, and often winter, days flew by even when the trials and tribulations of my teenage years were buzzing around my head. Concentrating on that fluorescent float tip, bright against the dark, slow moving waters, held my attention like nothing else could.
I don’t get to do much fishing these days, I have reservations about the cruelty of the sport, and being a Buddhist means I can’t really ignore that with a clean conscience. But I do have my Practice, my chanting and my prayer which are just as enthralling and can hold my attention even better than my piscatorial past.
So I’m moving ever closer to my goal of enlightenment through my daily practice. Being able to see the bigger picture means that I can actually measure the progress. It also means that these awkward situations are there in the background, and although I never ignore or forget about them, that my boat is a little steadier each day.
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Some days we are strong, some days not so strong.
Feelings change as we reflect on the causes for those feelings. Acting in haste, motivated by anger, disappointment or desperation will result in the causes of unwanted effects.
You may have gathered that the last few days and weeks have been a little challenging for me. It’s been a little difficult at work, though I’m happy to say that we seem to have worked through that.
Having the strength to take on the challenges of everyday life is not always easy. Chanting my heart out does it for me, as we’ve discussed before, but this quote from Daisaku Ikeda sums up the reality of the situation very nicely …
Reading back through my last few posts, I fear that the Buddhist content seems to have fallen a little by the wayside. So today, albeit back at work, has been a good excuse to bring my practice back to the forefront.
Overindulgence, in whatever form, often leads to a period of recuperation, and so it was today. The evenings jollifications with Phil and Nick yesterday led to Bumble being laid low for most of the day. Not that she went bonkers, or anything like, but it appears that her constitution was compromised and she spent the day recovering.
Sometimes, problems, or as we like to call them, challenges, seem to just keep on coming, one after another after another. With two deaths, as well as other problems associated with dementia in the family happening in the past few weeks, it’s been all too easy for us to start to wonder ‘What on earth have we done to deserve all this?’
We all have a mental view of where we are going in life, what we would like our future to look like, a set of challenges that we must conquer if we are to find our utopia. Each day, maybe even each second of each day, that view changes, usually just a little, sometimes quite a lot.
The Search For Enlightenment 
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