This weeks Tea

Tastes like green, I like green. I would like to get a picture of my benefactor up here to immortalize her on the www. Letting someone be kind to you is an act of compassion in itself and just as important as being kind to others. Strange how that works.

In other events, our kitchen cabinets are in the process of being refinished.
Megumi is doing the lion's share of the work.
I am just offering advice and assistance.
Not being attached to the results is tough.
The dishwasher has died and the oven is not far behind so this is the perfect time to work on the kitchen.

I had a functional area inspection at work last week. I hear I did above average. That is interesting to me because I have been sick for a while and felt like things were not going so well.
just goes to show you don't ever know.

May you be well and happy,
Jordan

Be nice to each other! And be sincere!

There have been a few folks out in the blogosphere talking about some subjects near and deer to me, so I put up a couple of Master Dogen’s old talks on the subject below. I feel like a broken record on this but since I see it keep coming up maybe the right thing to do is just rehash it.

Kind Speech & Love words, I feel are really at the heart of Buddhism, Right up there with Zazen*! I know that is a bold statement but here me out. Our main way of interacting with others is through communication, Here it is written, but it could be through speaking or other actions as well. Zazen* is a great practice, but while you may be able to plunge into it and get to the truth about reality, most folks are not ready, willing or able to do that yet. So clearly we should not be adding to suffering by making matters worse by acting superior or speaking down to others, belittling them. Instead try to raise them up if you can, or say nothing if you can’t.

There are exceptions! Sometimes, particularly when someone (like me) is particularly deluded, some harsh words might be in order to get someone to wake the heck up. But great care and compassion should be taken in that effort, because regardless of your intent, what comes around usually goes around.


May all be well and happy,
Jordan


* I acknowledge that others may have other practices that may be different, Zazen dose it for me.

Tea: mindful of mindfulness

I recognized something I had done subconsciously this morning, just a few moments ago.

Now I am conscious of it.

I self moderate my issuance of green tea based on availability.

Currently I am on a tight budget and I have rather expensive tastes in tea. As a result I have been cutting down on how much tea I use for a cup. This results in a thiner tea. The other day a friend gave me four bags of high quality Sencha and a really nice package of Macha. This persons thoughtfulness aside for a moment, I made a nice thick cup of the tea (a sencha& matcha blend) I had already had on hand. The odd thing is I was totally unaware of the moderation until I did not moderate.

I am sure this is a nice boring post, but I thought it was an interesting observation.

Maybe I could come up with a parable for this.

Back to the nice person who gave me the tea. She is a friend of my wife and has got to be a kind of subconscious saint. I really admire people who can manifest compassion without even giving it a thought. I wonder if I will ever be so magnanimous.

As an aside I am recognizing joy moment to moment again, thanks Mikedoe & Aaron.

May all be well and happy.
Jordan