Another meditator

          I had a very interesting conversation today with another meditater, someone who is a colleague of a friend of mine. We were walking along Forest Road, which was very busy, when we were having this talk.

          I think he was telling me about meditations that were lasting over two hours. Anyway, he said things started happening which made him uncomfortable, so I think he's stopped doing it. There were three things that occurred, but I can only remember two of them!!

          He said he could hear roaring like a jet engine. Then he said there seemed to be some kind of what he thought might be out of the body experiences. He thought it might be lucid dreaming, but he didn't know really. In one of these occasions, he went downstairs and noted where some things were in the room. When he got up from the meditation, he went down to have a look and the things weren't where he thought they might be, so he decided it was some kind of lucid dreaming.

            I told him I just got the weird stuff moving in my body and the bliss. Strangely enough, I haven't spoken to many folk about their meditation experiences, but not many folk I know meditate.

            The photie of of Khenpo Karthar blessing a statue I gave to Lama Rinchen. I spoke to the latter about the bliss once and she said not everyone got it. How disappointing!!

Plantings

          The photies were taken up the allotment over the last few days or so. So the plantings have started. And I moved the leeks that were over-wintered. Anyway, I don't feel under pressure with the allotment like I have over the last couple of years. Well, I'm not travelling anywhere this year.

          After spending most of Easter down the southside, I really needed to get back here to put in some solid practise. The worst thing you can do is hang around with people who aren't meditating. Well, you have to take them in the right dose. Today I should have gone to Bellshill to see Hughie and Kathy, but tomorrow I really should go and see Kate Nixon, and all that was really too much to contemplate this morning.

         Instead of going to Bellshill, I decided to try for a two hour session in the lobby. This turned out to be wonderfully reassuring!! All I have to do is sit and everything will beautifully unfold just the way it should.

         I'm going to the southside today for most of the weekend. Okay, Johnnyboy. Stay off the piss and get into the bliss!!

Reincarnation of 16th Karmapa

       
          |I watched a documentary about finding the reincarnation of the 16th Karmapa

Very interesting. Of course, bugger all about the initial problems with false declarations, schisms, etc., and you might expect. I watched it because you have to do something when you stop drinking and smoking, but I was very pleased to do so.

           Odd to see the three "regents" whom Lama Rinchen introduced me to a couple of years ago. They looked a lot younger. Made me feel so pleased to have met Lama Rinchen!

           Very odd to see grown men doing what a child told them to. Most interesting to see the 17th Karmapa telling folk to bury a rock because he said there was a demon living in it. We regard such things as demons as superstitious crap these days - not maybe not Bible thumpers. Christ is supposed to have sorted out some demons. My name is Legion - and I don't believe in believing in things I haven't actually experienced myself. But what do I know? Bizarre to watch the Karmapa telling the demon to calm down!!

           Someone bought a copy of The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf. God knows why, and how did they find it, etc. I'd give it away.

New starts for Springtime

          Today I finished digging the allotment. Next time I'm up there, I'll start planting. I really love that the winter is over and the flowers are all coming out now.

          I was feeling kind of adrift over the weekend due to not writing. I don't have to write and five years ago I tried to give it up completely. Now that I'm out of the habit I realise how difficult it will be to get back into it. If it was just the time, I've got the time. But at the moment I don't feel settled enough. Most weeks recently I've slept in three different beds. To write I'd like to sit down and do it at a set time every day. That's the kind of discipline you need. Well, I need.

          The trouble is that there's not much reason for me to write, apart from the fact that it did give me some joy and some satisfaction. Do I have the time? Unless I meditate all day, I should be able to find an hour or so a day no bother. I'd prefer to meditate than write, but my practise isn't in a place where I just meditate and do little else.

          Anyway, I haven't written much for the last year. Tonight, I start again. What will I start on? I think I'll have a look at the second thriller I left off some time ago. I could get a plot line worked out and maybe try to put it in script form first. I'd really like to write about the juju, but I'll have to wait a few years till I've got some realisation to write about. No, I'll go back to the thriller. Maybe make the protagonist a Buddhist!

           I found a one star review of the Ecuador book. It's better if someone bothered to give you a five star review, but if you put someone on the internet, you have to take what you get. Anyway, the book is probably the worst of the three Buddhist books and I'd only recommend it to someone who was interested in meditation and Buddhism and probably Ecuador. Otherwise, it would put them to sleep. Thrilling, it aint!! No one has ever posted a review of the first one, The Buddha and the Big Bad Wolf and that must have been read by hundreds of folk by this time. The Stumblebumming book was only downloaded by twenty two people when it was put up for free and a crap review appeared almost immediately, and the reviewer normally reviews toasters and hairdryers and that kind of thing. Nothing's as queer as folk. I came here to post this review, but I can't find it right now!! For some reason, the book isn't on my Amazon page.

         I feel that I can do anything now that I've given up the alcohol. Maybe I should forget about the writing. It's a bit self indulgent!! I don't care about getting published. If I wanted to get published, I know what I'd write. The last time I wrote a book to get published, I got it published. Sex, violence, tight story line would do it this time. Getting books published doesn't make you happy. Money is the only good reason.

         I posted the photie because it sparked joy when I saw that Lama Rinchen had sent it to me. Vulture's Peak and the Heart Sutra! Yes!!