Thursday 1 November 2007

Ra Clear Horizons!

Thursday 11:05 a.m.
Fair play to the jobbie-men for at last they've done something right! What an amazement! Partly due to this, I left the jobbie yesterday, after my half a day working week was over, feeling most exhilerated. Trying to realise non-self and emptiness is, of course, a full time job and I shouldn't really be doing anything else. An exhausting half a day it was too, but I felt great again after I had a wee lie down!

I can feel the happiness starting to shine through. I haven't had any beer or cannybliss yogurt since Sunday and, although that's supposed to be par for the course for most evil bourgeois basturns, it's still quite a stretch for me these days. A friend of mine once met a gurl, got engaged, and split up over an eighteen month period without ever having been with her when he was straight. I mean, that's normal, isn't it?

That description of reality/emptiness from Tsongkhapa given in the last post probably comes, more or less, from Nagarjuna, the Indian sage. I assume both these joes were fully realised buddhas. They're trying to describe reality for flatheids like me and you as a help to judder our minds into a better, newer way of thinking. What I mean is that I don't think this stuff starts with the descriptive thoughts. It's coming backwards, as it were, from the realisation. My guru told me once I'd get everything from the straightforward calming meditations, but I didn't listen to that of course. But I find that the descriptions of what emptiness might be does help me.

The meditations power on and the next few days might well be fantastic. I hope so.

3:45 p.m.
What a great day I'm having! At one o clock I was doing some sitting with our friend with the MS so her husband could go a message. What a great big smile she gave me! I asked her if she felt she was becoming intellectually impaired. Let's be frank. Some folk told me she was becoming doo-lally. She can't speak much, but she can still speak much better than my sister (who had the other type of MS) could speak. For years nobody could understand a word my sister was trying to say except us family members who'd listened while her language deteriorated. Nobody in our house ever thought the MS was making her any stupider. So I asked our friend with the MS if she could still follow a radio play or something on the telly. She said yes; she liked listening to radio plays. She thought her mind was fine. She gets tired. She can't speak properly. I asked if she wanted me to shut up, so she could listen to the radio, or would she like to hear about the three turnings of the wheel of dharma? She asked for the dharma.

It might have been at least as good for me as it was for her. Trying to tell someone something is one of the best ways of remembering and learning it yourself. It lasted about an hour and just at the end, the doorbell rang and the carers showed up to do the caring. Then her husband came back just as they were leaving. I cycled home. Whee!

Then I came in here to do some re-writing of The Real McCoy. I did about an hour on it last week. Last night I decided the introduction to Angus McSorley was really appalling bad and would have to be completely re-written. The character had no fung character! Anyway, I've just had a great idea on how to change the story and make it much better. Something just fired my rockets!

Where do you get your ideas from, Hotboy? I get them from thinking, Jack! Where the fung else would I get them from? They arise in mind; abide in mind; decline in mind!! I'm having a great life, so I am! What more could a body ask for? Oh, yes, I'm quite exhausted now after writing my novel for half an hour and I think it's best if I go for a wee snooze!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear you had such a good day. I often find when I try to explain something it becomes clearer to me.

I think this is why I tend to talk out loud to myself. For the chance to learn in another way.

I think it is wonderful that you can and do spend time with your friend with MS.

Sometimes us chronically ill folks get left behind or ignored. Fatigue is a hard thing to deal with.

You are a good toad, feller me lad.

Hotboy said...

Marie Rex! It's after eleven now and my day has been exceptionally good. Thanks for the comment. The advantage I think I have with visiting our friend with the MS is that I can keep quiet and sit still (tomorrow probably over an hour with the auld maw) longer than most, but I can also talk non-stop for ages. My occasional visits with our friend probably helps me more than it does her. Having a big sister with MS was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Hotboy

rob said...

That friend of yours - not much of a compliment to the gurl, is it?

Do I know her? I'm sure I'd remember a gurl like that.

What with you on MS duty, and my former cancer support work, we've got the psycho carer market almost sewn up. No wonder there's no time for work.

PS - how come you never asked me if I wanted you to shut up?

rob said...

Hotboy - if you further reduce the working hours, I'd recommend hiring a car, driving to a German Lidl, and filling the boot with their own brand weissbier (29 cents a bottle). I just opened the last bottle I brought back last year, and it was good as new. Does that help?

Hotboy said...

Albert? That beer is far too cheap! If I wasn't completely teetotal these days, I might get into my rowing boat! Hotboy p.s. Sometimes if I didn't speak nobody would! That's the trouble with public school boys. When they can't put their hands up, they're lost!

ion said...

The smile from your friend with the MS is standout. It sounds as if she has her own quality of life and grace.

Anonymous said...

I say!

Sorry to hear about your exhileration. Try more fluids. Or maybe you mean exhilaration.

I feel a great bond with rob's comment, for neither have you ever asked me if I wanted you to shut up.

I do remember making a rule late one evening that you could not speak for ten minutes. You lasted as well, just.

MM III

Lee Ann said...

So glad you had a wonderful day.
I hope you have as much of a wonderful weekend.
~xo
Lee Ann

onan the bavarian said...

LOL.

onan the bavarian said...

I mean re public school boys putting their hands up. Dead right hotboy.

Hotboy said...

Onan! This is getting very confusing! How many bavarians are there out there in the blogosphere? Tell Albert I was asking for him! Hotboy