Garden photies

    All these photies were taken this afternoon in my pal's garden in Marchmont. It looks like Spring to me.

    I have not lost the hankering to ask if it's possible to go back for the last five weeks of the retreat on the Holy Isle. The business I had to do with the flat seems to have been done. The BBC haven't contacted me yet, but I'm not expecting anything from that. The script seemed surprisingly bolshie when I heard it last week. I just don't feel very settled somehow yet. Maybe it's the coming of Spring.

    When the Springtime will come, oh won't we have fun. We'll get out of jail and we'll go on the bum.

Samsara reading!

    I took the photies at the Botties on Thursday.

     Last night I got three copies of Samsara, the radio play I've been intermittently working on, printed out and we sat round reading it into a recording device. This was very useful and may be useful in future. I was expecting the script to last for an hour, but it only lasted just under forty five minutes.

     It's a lot more focused than it was, but still needs a lot of work done on it. I don't know if it's worth doing that just now since I don't expect a positive response from the radio drama people. This is mainly because nobody there knows me. But now that my future son-in-law managed to get the printer to work and I've got a hard copy .... well, now I can get into the nuts and bolts of it, whenever.

       Quite often in the week and a half since I was on the Holy Isle, I've wished that I was back there!!

The Iceman Cometh

The bottom photie is of some crocuses in the Botties today. Is it not a bit early for them to come out?

I started watching The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neil. I read the play about thirty odd years ago. I remembered being delighted with it because it featured anarchists and I'd read a lot about anarchists by that time. It's set mainly in the back room of a bar in New York in 1912 and the interesting thing is that only half the folk in the bar are American born. There's an English guy, a South African guy, and Irish guy, etc. Another interesting thing about it is that I remembered bugger all about it, apart from how much I enjoyed reading it and the anarchist angle. Long Days Journey Into Night is next!!

A Review of The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf!

Just found this when I was supposed to be working on my play. It was on the American site.

 Eat Pray Love meets Electric koolaid Acid Test, December 30, 2013

By 

Sherry Landrum "directorsherry"

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This review is from: The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf (Kindle Edition)

Two travelers go on an adventure in Nepal and India. They go to meditate and visit Buddhists sites and possibly gain some enlightenment. Writer, John Mckenzie is an iconoclast of the first order and charmingly irreverent as he mulls over the second noble truth: suffering is caused by desire based on ignorance of your true self. Some of the most entertaining escapades are his search for and negotiation to buy pot. Even though I wonder how anyone can really know if they are having a meditative experience if they use pot when they meditate, I still enjoyed his descriptions of his search. He is well aware of this inconsistency. He poses some interesting thoughts on the subject of suffering. I admit I laughed a lot, but every now and then the narrative became a bit confusing, perhaps the grey green auric haze of cannabis.

The Things You Miss

      I love my bed. I really do. I think it's my favourite thing so I'm glad every time I waken up in it. Because I wasn't doing prostrations on the Holy Isle, I did a lot more meditating, but got very little exercise other than doing tai chi sets and standing on my head. So since there was just sitting, reading and eating, I'm probably a good half stone fatter than I was at the start of the year.

       Late this afternoon, I donned the Beer Monster Reduction Vehicle and managed to get through six three minute rounds of shadow boxing before lying in the bath for a good half hour. I missed baths. I love lying in the bath and doing the bliss.

        And what a lovely afternoon it was for walking in the Botanic Gardens! The Botties are a total joy when the sun shines. After that I went and sat in the hut, but after half an hour the bit of string holding the door shut unravelled and I got up and came home for the shadow boxing and all.

         This is going to be a very interesting year for me. Looking forward to everything!!

More photies from the Holy Isle

          One of the very good things that happened on the Holy Isle was having an interview with Lama Rinchen. Next December I'll be going with her and some Belgians to India on a buddhist pligrimage. I don't know yet where else we'll be going, but we're going to Bodh Gaya anyway. Be wonderful!!

Back home from the Holy Isle

            If you meditate for nine hours or so a day, there really isn't much time for doing much else. I did the odd Tai Chi set and stood on my head. Some days I hardly spoke to anyone at all, apart from a nodding hello. One evening in the shrine room just before the juju started, this lovely Chinese woman asked me what I got out of meditating and I said, "Fantastic bliss." What a big smile she gave me! It made the whole thing worthwhile. I don't know anyone who meditates back here. This makes me feel very isolated. much, much more than living on my own. On the Holy Isle everyone is either helping or trying. Do you know what the bliss is? Flatheids just don't get the bliss.