PVC Shakuhachi

There is supposed to be a video here.  hope it works!

Here is the link on how to make your own PVC Shakuhachi

May you be free from suffering.

Moving the Stupa (formerly known as the stone)

Friday I had the opportunity to help out Virginia Wolf with her stone Stupa project again. Unfortunately my camera has malfunctioned so the ink painting is all I have to really commemorate the experience. I also did a little blowing meditation there with the flute, which no one told me was awful. I had been thinking a bit about confidence lately after hearing stories of others and thought that my own confidence is rather high. But playing the flute in front of an audience is a good way to put that false sense of confidence in check. As I played I could feel my heart rate increase and I could hear my heart pounding trough the notes. I asked but no one else seemed to notice. Thinking about it, it was a really wonderful experience. Rev. Meiko has asked me to play for the children at the Dharma school. That will be another opportunity to practice in front of an audience. I would like to practice a bit more prior to that since I have been neglecting the Shakuhachi facet of my own overall practice lately.

I remember my first lesson after practicing for two years on my own. The first time I tried to blow a good Ro note for my teacher I could not make a sound at all. He called that the lesson effect. I have come a long way from there but still have a lifetime to go.

May all be well and happy
Jordan

Prayers

Did funeral honors today. Not an OIF casualty but a Marine who had served in Viet Nam. I spoke to a friend of his from that war before the funeral service. Said his friend had started doing “the hard stuff” after coming back from that war, which is what killed him.

Please take a moment to appreciate the universe as it is.

The Dharma incomparably profound and exquisite
Is rarely met with, even in hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas;
We are now permitted to see it, to listen to it, to accept and hold it;
May we truly understand the meaning of the Tathagata's words!


All the evil karma ever committed by me since of old,
On account of greed, anger, and folly, which have no beginning,
Born of my body, mouth, and thought--
I now make full open confession of it.

I take refuge in the Buddha;
I take refuge in the Dharma;
I take refuge in the Sangha.


However innumerable beings are, I vow to save them;
However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them;
However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to master them;
However incomparable the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it.


All composite things are impermanent,
They are subject to birth and death;
Put an end to birth and death,
And there is a blissful tranquility.

May all be well and happy.
Jordan

Rock On V

Here is some of what Virginia was working on. Wow!
I put her link up on the right, go look!

Rock On IV

I got another chance to help out Virginia with the Stupa sculpture.
I got to do some stone splitting work, although the stone did not always split how I intended it to. Good life lesson there. no matter how skilled or strong you think you are, sometimes things don’t break the way you want.



Remember you can take a look at Virginias sculptures at http://www.virginiawolfsculpture.com/

Be well and happy.

Rock on III

Rock on II

Rock On

Recently I was invited to help out with a project for the Priory. There is a Sculptor in the Sangha (Virginia Wolf) who is making a stone sculpture of a Stupa. My small part so far involved helping to get a stone from one place to another.

Take a look at Virginia's work at http://www.virginiawolfsculpture.com/

I took along my camera and took some pictures just because I felt like it.

Enjoy!