Wednesday 9:02 PM

 The beauty of the sky haunted a monk: so it was written in Essays in Idleness.

Two other books I have recently acquired

 The first book I have been stealing passages from and placing in this blog.  I heard of the book reading David Warren’s Essays in Idleness Blog.  The book, apparently, was an inspiration for the blog’s title.  To retire to a secluded hut in order to meditate, write and contemplate.  That would be a life…

The second book I also heard of from DW’s EiI blog. The other book of aphorisms I heard of thanks to EiI were those of NGD.

I got the books on Amazon.

Monday 9:23 PM

It is comfortable outside.  Smooch the cat is lying down outside, very calm and content.

I hope I don’t forget to let her back in.

Meanwhile I read this:

The emperor’s bedding in the imperial bedchamber is placed with the pillow facing east. Sleeping with the head in this direction generally confers dynamic yang energy, which is why Confucius also slept thus. Mansions built in the shinden style often have the bed facing south.

Retired Emperor Shirakawa slept with head to the north. However, the north should be avoided as inauspicious. Someone also pointed out that the great shrine of Ise lies to the south, and surely it is wrong for His Majesty to lie with feet pointing towards this sacred shrine. When worshipping the distant Ise Shrine, however, the emperor faces not due south but south-east.

AKIC blogger's pillow is on the north side of the bed.  AKIC faces south when he sleeps.  What direction should AKIC be facing?  Not eastwards towards Mordor.  Maybe westwards towards the new republic.

AKIC's wife Jenny is currently on her way to the Shanghai Pudong Airport.

Sunday 7:30 PM

 The triangular shadow is the roof of my Mom’s house.

Be firm. Be virile  Be a man. And then… be a saint.

The monk Zehō is among the finest scholars in the Pure Land sect, yet he doesn’t parade his learning; he lives in calm seclusion, chanting the nenbutsu day in day out. An exemplary existence.

If nothing will be gained by changing something, it is better not to do so.

—Quien no vuelva la espalda al mundo actual se deshonra.

—Whoever does not turn his back on the contemporary world dishonors himself.

Friday 10:01 PM

 

There are seven types of people one should not have as a friend.

The first is an exalted and high-ranking person. The second, somebody young. The third, anyone strong and in perfect health. The fourth, a man who loves drink. The fifth, a brave and daring warrior. The sixth, a liar. The seventh, an avaricious man.

The three to choose as friends are – one who gives gifts, a doctor and a wise man.

Ray Pero and Chairman Xi:

Saturday 9:10 PM

 A lovely evening, however:

—Nadie tiene capital sentimental suficiente para

malgastar el entusiasmo.

—Nobody has so much sentimental capital that he can

afford to squander his enthusiasm.

NGD is from Columbia, so I will cheer for them in the WC.

A man who was studying archery took two arrows in his hand' and stood before the target.

'A beginner should not hold two arrows,' his teacher told him. 'You will be careless with the first, knowing you have a second. You must always be determined to hit the target with the single arrow you shoot, and have no thought beyond this.' With only two arrows, and standing before his master, would he really be inclined to be slapdash with one of them? Yet although he may not have been aware of his own carelessness, his teacher was. The same injunction surely applies in all matters.

A man engaged in Buddhist practice will tell himself at night that there is always the morning, or in the morning will anticipate the night, always intending to make more effort later. And if such are your days, how much less aware must you be of the passing moment's indolence. Why should it be so difficult to carry something out right now when you think of it, to seize the instant?

“Unconverted man lives in the visible world judging all that is or may be by tradition’s experience and by the rules of logic. But when he encounters Christ, he must either accept him and his revolutionary approach to truth or lose him. If he attempts to judge also the Lord by the standards of common experience, he will soon notice that he is dealing with something outside experience. He will have to discard the norms of the past, and take Christ as his new point of departure. When he no longer attempts to subject Christ to immediate reason and experience, he will recognize him as the supreme measure of all possible reality.”

Thursday 9:54 PM

 My Brazil student was a no show.

Here are some AI images I made for Ray Pero:

What kind of man will feel depressed at being idle? There is nothing finer than to be alone with nothing to distract you.

If you follow the ways of the world, your heart will be drawn to its sensual defilements and easily led astray; if you go among people, your words will be guided by others’ responses rather than come from the heart. There is nothing firm or stable in a life spent between larking about together and quarrelling, exuberant one moment,

aggrieved and resentful the next. You are forever pondering pros and cons, endlessly absorbed in questions of gainand loss. And on top of delusion comes drunkenness, and in that drunkenness you dream.

Scurrying and bustling, heedless and forgetful – such are all men. Even if you do not yet understand the True Way, you can achieve what could be termed temporary happiness at least by removing yourself from outside

influences, taking no part in the affairs of the world, calming yourself and stilling the mind. As The Great Cessation and Insight150 says, we must ‘break all ties with everyday life, human affairs, the arts and scholarship’

Tuesday 7:54 PM

 From Essays in Idleness, by Kenko:

A certain recluse monk once remarked,

‘I have relinquished all that ties me to the world, but the one thing that still haunts me is the beauty of the sky.’ I can quite see why he would feel this.