Happy Birthday, Dalai Lama!

Marking the Dalai Lama’s 77th birthday, today is Compassion Day:

Ever since we first read Demi’s lovely picture book telling the life story of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, the boys have been quite fascinated by him. I think it was finding out that, as a child, he was really quite mischievous and liked to take things apart to see how they worked!

Anyway, Waif has written another of his poems in honour of the occasion:

Peaceful monks

Very kind

A monks mind

Is always kind

A robe red

The Buddha said

Peace

Barely cease

Meditation

Faking It

This is kind of a continuation on the theme of fakeness…

I recently came across Bodhipaksa’s blog “bodhi tree swaying” and in particular his series on fake Buddha quotes.    With the preponderance of quotation sites online, it is easy enough to grab a “Buddha” quote to fit what you want to say…but are they genuine quotes of the Buddha?  One I have used in particular in the past is “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change“.   I love this quote; I find it inspiring and I believe that others do too.  But after reading a few of Bodhipaksa’s posts on fake Buddha quotes, I suspected that it might not be authentic.   It turns out I was right!  Bodhipaska writes:

 

It’s from page 112 of Jack Kornfield’s “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book,” in which Jack “distilled and adapted an ancient teaching for the needs of contemporary life.” This is a common pattern: if a book is called “The Teaching of Buddha” or “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book” then people jump to the conclusion that any quote from it is the teaching of the Buddha or one of the Buddha’s instructions. It’s not the fault of the author, of course…

 

So the quote is fake.  I do vow to be more mindful in attributing quotes, and checking sources.  But in some ways, I think, does it matter?  If the phrase is one which is in line with the Buddha’s teachings, and is helpful to people treading the path, how important is it that the quote be “authentic”?  I would be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this.

I have also been skimming through The Life of Milarepa (I will read it properly soon ) and came across this:

Showing others the path

When you don’t know the way

Harms yourself and others

This has become jumbled up in my self doubts of yesterday.  Though I don’t think I am trying to show others the path, but only to share thoughts that I have found helpful and others may do too.  I think if we took this Milarepa quote too literally, then there would be very few dharma teachers, and that could hardly be a good thing!  But it is certainly something to chew on.

But – hey – flowers are wonderful, in the eyes of Jack Kornfield and many others, so today I am going to share a few from my garden.  A miracle, every one of them. Enjoy

Buddha Meditate

Tuesday nights in our house are known as “Mum’s Buddha Night” – when I desert the family to go to a Buddhist meditation & study group. Last night I came home to find Waif had created this little picture and poem and left it beside the bed:

Here’s the poem (corrected for spellings ) – must do some work on the difference between where and wear!)

Buddha Meditate

Buddha is calm
Peace
Wears a robe
Meditate peacefully
Quiet
Closing eyes.

Didn’t he do a great job?

I am a bit wary of foisting religious beliefs onto my children, but do share with them any teachings that might be useful to them and make their lives easier and calmer. To that end we are reading together Thich Nhat Han’s book “A Pebble for Your Pocket“, which is a very gentle introduction to mindfulness for children.  It’s a lovely book – one that I would recommend to those of any faith or no faith, child or adult.

On Faith and Similes

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith just lately. I have a (mostly) daily meditation practice; attend a weekly dharma and meditation class; and more and more try to live my life in a mindful way. There is still a little part of me that holds back from calling myself a Buddhist though. Not doubt in the teachings of the Buddha per se, but difficulty with seeing how the religious aspects of faith fit in with the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha said:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

Of the Buddha’s teachings that I know, that I can experience for myself, that I understand – there is nothing so far that doesn’t agree with reason or that isn’t conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. And so, I guess, in a way, I can say I have faith in the Buddha’s teaching.

I created this art journal page after my dharma teacher read us a passage from “Advice from the Lotus-Born“. In the passage, the Bodhisattva Padmasambhava gives advice to his follower Tsogyal. The passage is quite beautiful, and full of wonderfully evocative similes (who doesn’t love a good simile?). I have included a few on my journal page. After reeling off scores of these “faith is like…” similes, Padmasambhava finishes by saying “Once faith has dawned from deep within you, all virtuous qualities arrive in a mountainous heap!” which makes me smile every time I read it

This art journal page uses crayon wax resist with watercolour paints and stamping with acrylic paint.  The words are written on watercolour-painted pages and collaged in place.

Signing up for the May Flower Challenge

Ooh, an exciting new challenge!  It’s the May Flower Challenge, over on Lori Moon Studio’s blog.  The idea is to do something to do with flowers throughout May – I’m thinking drawing flowers, painting them, photographing them, writing poems about them…and the boys are joining in too.

I enjoyed the Index-Card-A-Day Challenge last summer over at Daisy Yellow, so thought I might create a month of flower-themed index card art.  Here’s the first:

Waif wrote a poem about flowers:

Don’t you just love the idea that flowers are giving hugs to bugs?!

We then spent some time gathering dandelion flowers ready to make some dandelion massage oil:

Waif is pretty pleased with it:

We now have to wait six weeks for the dandelion flowers to infuse the oil, before removing them and refrigerating the oil. Apparently it will be very good for aching muscles!

Gman has joined in by taking photographs of flowers – I expect these will pop up on his blog any day now! Edited: yep, here they are!

Be Amazed

Mary Oliver is one of my favourite poets.  She writes eloquently and beautifully and with a reverence for nature and spirit.  The verses included in this  journal spread are taken from her poem “The Sun“.  The scan isn’t great – the paint is actually much, much brighter – but I think it conveys the spirit in which it was created.  “Be amazed!”   Take time to pay close attention to the world and you can’t help but be amazed.  But how often do we take the time to be amazed?

In the words of the Buddha: “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

Which brings me neatly on to our sketches for this week’s Sketch Tuesday assignment, which is to sketch your very best blossom. Here’s my rather plain bloom:

Waif’s Morning Glory flowers:

Gman’s flower border:

After stating that drawing flowers wasn’t really “his cup of tea”, Gman then went on to do another flower drawing, and rather lovely it is too!:

More Fun with Mina

As I thought, My Name is Mina is proving to be a source of lots of learning, and lots of fun.

Mina talks about different beliefs about death and the afterlife, which was a springboard for learning about funeral rites in different cultures. We read about historical views on the afterlife from the British Museum, and the boys did one of the suggested art activities, which was to design a tombstone for a historical or fictional character, including symbols related to their life. Gman did one for Bilbo Baggins (of Lord of the Rings):

Waif chose Buddha for his:

Mina also talks in the book about a Tibetan creation myth, whereby the universe emerges from an egg. This inspired some super pictures. Gman did two interpretations:

And here’s Waif’s interpretation, complete with all the planets:

Next stop: poetry. My Name is Mina is peppered with “extraordinary activities” for readers to do. One of these is to write a poem “that repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word and repeats a word until it almost loses its meaning. (It can be useful to choose a word that you don’t like, or that scares or disturbs you.)“  It’s a measure of how squeamish the boys are that Gman’s word was “fracture” and Waif’s was “needle”!! This is the first time Waif has written a poem and I think he did great:

If you’d like to read Gman’s poem, he has posted it on his own blog here: http://thebatamonblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/fractured-bone-poem/

I think it’s safe to say that we are enjoying this read and all the activities it has inspired.  Who needs a curriculum when you can be a free spirit like Mina?

I am not my stuff

Some days I feel like I am drowning in stuff.

I do not consider myself materialistic. I don’t own a huge house, or a fast car. I don’t wear designer clothes or fragrance. I don’t own an iPad. Or a Blackberry. I don’t eat out in fancy restaurants or jet off on foreign holidays. But I still feel overwhelmed sometimes by too much stuff. And since reading this rather wonderful article on Tricycle (you do have to be a subscriber to read it, but it is by Andrew Mellen, author of Unstuff Your Life so I think you would be able to find similar articles elsewhere) I have been on a mission to unstuff my life! I created the art journal page as a reminder

I AM NOT MY STUFF!

I have so far managed to reduce my book collection by at least a third. And this weekend Gman and I had a stall at a car boot sale and sold loads more. I am gradually clearing space in my house. And in my head. For me, Andrew Mellen sums it up thus: “The goal is finally having time for all of the things that you say are important to you but never seem to have enough time for since you’re so disorganised”.

As I said from the beginning, I am on a mission to simplify my life, until at last I can sit serenely like the Buddha:

This Buddha was the sketch I did for this week’s Sketch Tuesday assignment – “something beginning with B”. And I know Buddha isn’t usually depicted in flowery robes, but I sketched this from a small ornamental Buddha that Waif bought for Gman & he not only has flowery robes but is glittery too!!

Waif chose to sketch baked beans for his assignment:

And Gman went for a boy on a beach:

Next week’s assignment is to sketch something from your kitchen drawer. Maybe we could each find one item that we don’t need any more, sketch it, then rehome it?!

I will leave you with this thought in mind, courtesty of Bertrand Russell:

“It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”