In Denmark in the war against the machines.

          I travelled to see my nephew Liam and nephew Neil with their families in Trige, Denmark. You have to get to Copenhagen and then get on a train to Aarhus, and it's decades since I travelled on my own. It's not the travelling that bothers me. Not at all. It's the machines.

           I was in the queue at the bank when the woman told me I didn't have to inform the bank that I was going abroad. This reminded me of  Poisonous telling me the cards worked in Ecuador. Well, after trying many banks, yes, the cards worked. So when I got off the plane in Denmark, I tried the first machine and it said bugger off. Well, I'd taken £300 out in Scotland and that's why it probably didn't work, but I was not surprised.

          Getting the ticket for the train was okay and this Danish machine was really user friendly and even I had not trouble with that machine. On the way back, it took me four goes to get the self service check-in to work. Trouble scanning the passport. But a wee boy helped me with that and it finally worked. Then the automatic passport control couldn't scan my passport either, and that took five minutes more than it should have.

           All the time I'm coming home, I'm thinking that I really don't want to go to India this November. I'm booked to fly to Heathrow from Brussels after flying from India. Nightmare.  Hopefully,  by the autumn I'll have forgotten how horrible air travel is.

           What I saw and heard about Denmark left a very good impression. Same population as Scotland, but no foodbanks and no beggars in the streets. The social services are apparently excellent. My nephew's daughter was doing hatha yoga out the back garden. She gets taught it in primary school. Makes one wonder why Scotland can't be just like that.

            The first photie is of a cabin where I slept. Perfect spot for meditating. Windows, heater and bed. What more could a meditater ask for?

Treading water.

          Last weekend we were out on Saturday, and went to see Craignethan Castle as well as stopping at a very dry looking reservoir on the Lang Whang. We also went to a glen somewhere, one of the Woodland Trust places that Heather somehow manages to find scattered here and there. The bottom photie might was taken to show the drop into the gorge, but it doesn't look so good. One of the photies is of the view I tend to have when I waken up at the weekend.

         The Festival has been on for a couple of weeks, but I haven't noticed it yet.

       

       

Arthur's Seat and Rain Bomb

                    I read about rain bombs. This is like a tropical storm, maybe the kind you get in West Australia, which happens after a hot spell. Well, I was waiting for the bus on Thursday around five o clock when the heavens opened for about fifteen minutes.

                   Today we were up Arthur's seat. The sky was very interesting. I lay flat on the grass and looked up for a while. This is a kind of Nyingma meditation, I think, though I suspect that's really for starry nights.  Mind like space.

Looking ahead!

                   Found this photie when I was, as usual, looking for the recent phone photies, which are still somewhere indiscernible within the machine, cyberspace, or whatever. The photie above is of Cambusnethan Church from the Bowman's back door in Newmains. Takes one back, so it does.

                   Even with the usual hassle with the photies, the machines have not been so back right now since I seem to have been successful in applying for an Indian Visa. So screwed up have I been with this visa that I am not investigating this until tomorrow when I'll have put in a whole day's meditation first of all. Maybe that particular .... just wait till I have to look at it.

                    Trying to book flights, get visas, etcetera, has really marred the last few weeks for me. It's not as if I'm actually looking forward to any of these events I'm flying to, but I think I don't have to worry about anything else for a couple of weeks. Next year I'd love to spend several months camping down at the Samye Ling. No flights, no visas, no bugger all!

                    I was thinking of old age and Mrs Bowman yesterday. She had a long and very normal old age. She lived alone and only had visitors occasionally, usually at the weekend when some of her children might show up. She told me once that she found the days to be long, and I can sympathise with her on that.

                    By contrast, I feel as if I'm on the, or a, path. I really do. When I get a grip on my bad habits, particularly, the meditations are a huge boon. It takes a lot of effort, but just the experience of the bliss without any concomitant effects, would make it all worthwhile. Sometimes there have been wee difficulties, but these were generally to do with lifestyle, beliefs, etc. The meditations work. It says in The Bliss of Inner Fire that you might experience "explosions of bliss and emptiness." I'm not there yet, but I do feel like I am on the path, and slowly but surely I'm a-coming!

                     

The Samye Ling again!

                    Shows what a screw up the start of this year was when I only got down to the Samye Ling last week for the first time this year. This is not good. After the first day of settling in, the quality of the meditations was way better than the usual around these parts. I really need a lot longer in retreat, but it was pretty, pretty good.

                    Funnily enough, I was only in the temple once, the first night I was there. This is really because the abbot was away on business. Most of my meditating was done down by the river. Due to the water level being lower at this time of year, the wee island made an appearance. Perfect place to sit!!

                  The meditations moved on a bit, but now I'm back here and already today I've had two incomings. I cancelled the Samye this weekend when Katen Lama is doing something, but I think I'll try to go back on Monday for three or four nights.

In These Sunny Days.

            Somebody bought the three buddhisty books on my kindle thing last weekend. I really like that. It's not the money. I think I'd get about 75p, not enough to even give away. But it's some kind of almost subliminal connection. Whoever it was, wants to know something about buddhism and all, and I'd like to do that too.

          The bug photies are because of the smart phone... for an old joe like me, the cameras are amazing ... like the first Bladerunner when the boy zooms in. The photie is because my friend likes bugs and asked me to take them. Damsel flies.

          Some of the photies are just the bit around where I was meditating today, sitting in the dirt in the sunshine. The weather has been hotter than it should be, but I always like it when the grass goes yellow and starts blowing away.

Meditation injuries!

          Aye, it's a rough old game, this meditating! My alarm went off in another room after I'd been sitting in the lobby for bit. My legs had gone numb so I bum shuffled into the kitchen, but the phone was on the table, so when I tried to put weight on the dead leg ,,,,, It was a couple of days ago now.

          The train from Bellshill today was cancelled and the next one delayed by ..... hot rails. It was bloody roasting, mind you.

           Almost every day when I meditate I seem to feel something a wee bit different. Keeps it most interesting.

Sunny Days

          It was a bank holiday yesterday and the weather was glorious. I was at Newcastle Battle Abbey and the middle photie is of Borthwick Castle. You can see Crighton Castle from there. Lots of castles in Scotland!

          Every day the meditations seem to move on. Rollercoaster these days. I'm so looking forward to the next few months!!

Pressmennan Wood

                    I've started watching Russia Today over the last few days. It's referred to by our media as a propaganda news station and it probably is. Unlike the BBC of course. The first ten minutes of the evening news on Friday was devoted to the royal wedding, which was due to happen the NEXT  day. Well, can that be even counted as news, something that hasn't happened yet?
 
                    Anyone who knows me knows how much I love being a subject  of our royal family, but I had to go to Pressmennan Wood when there was nothing else but advertisements for the Breetish establishment on the telly and it was very beautiful there yesterday.

Beautiful May days.

          The top photie shows the view from the door of my hut these days, now that someone else is working the other half of the plot. I was up the allotment today and planted some tatties and some onions. I guess I should have all the allotment planted by the end of the week. It's so much easier than working a whole plot.

          I was at Lauriston Castle on Saturday and took the cherry  blossom photies then.

          The meditations are moving on at a helluva pace. Really don't know why.