It was a light-snowy, no sun day, so Andy took advantage of the weather to burn some slash.
Down here in the apartment it was a cozy, contemplative day. I’ve been pondering one of my favorite quotes:
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day—that is the highest of arts.
—-Henry David Thoreau
That’s what “Happiness as a spiritual practice” is about, of course. So then the questions become: What is an art, and what is a spiritual practice? Can something be both at the same time?
I do love being retired and not having to spend most of my time on practical matters!
Do you have any unpractical hobbies?
January 14, 2015
Gerontologists think otherwise but my daily dose of crossword puzzles should feature!
I figured you would mention them. I’m sure gerontologists would think pondering is good for the soul and thus for the body and brain too. Yay, retirement!
http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=jhan309
Here’s Monk sitting on her mountaintop .
😀
We visited monasteries in Thailand, China, Tibet. Talked to monks. They are young men, with no vocation, wearing saffron robes. They beg, live on white rice & pray. CMonk will be getting online with quotes.
I’ll not only give you a quote, I’ll give you a link:
From 4 things you should know if you want to be a Buddhist monk
This is a response to your saying the young men you talked to had “no vocation”. If that wasn’t a typo and you didn’t mean “no vacation”, then maybe they became monks for at least a period of time because it was part of their tradition, just like here in the states it’s going to college whether or not the kids want to study and learn. Did you ask them why they became monks?
Anyway, the article is good. It also mentions the importance of picking one’s community and guru well — some gurus are great, others are successful psychopaths that can do great harm.
Thanks for your comment!
You didn’t print what a monk’s life is like. Vocation is the wrong word. They have no training to be able to do anything useful. They are poor with no other place to go & no ambition except to be taken care of & pray. How far did you dig to come up with that?
Your life is the internet only. To each his own.
“How far did you dig to come up with that?” It popped right up when I Googled “monks Thailand, Tibet.” It sounds as if you’re upset that their life isn’t “useful”, that people are willing to support their form of spirituality? How would you describe your life? What exactly makes a life more “useful”? Why do you think usefulness is such a good criteria for a meaningful life? Obviously the alms-begging monks couldn’t survive if enough people didn’t respect them. What kind of people do you respect? What contributions do you think they make?
vocation — you’re thinking of the definition: a profession or trade. I was using the older idea of a summons, a call, as in a divine call to God’s service. That’s from the Christian perspective, of course, but it’s closer to the calling of a Buddhist monk.
It’s good to have that clarified.
Google The life of a monk.
Btw you’ve said you don’t give a link but print it out. If you gave a link, you wouldn’t have a post.
as you know… thoreau is a favorite of mine.
i like that quote. and my monk. you are an inspiration too.
today…
i’m finding that i’ve finally grown tired of what i think. i live too much in my head.
always have.
maybe this will be the year i will come out of my head and . . . what? i don’t know yet.
🙂
and bhb… you are fun to know. LOL … a little strange. but fun! LOL
Oil pastels do it for me. I don’t do art, because apparently art is something created with intention and analysis. I explore lines and color and see what resonates and what doesn’t. I seldom save anything. I figure if it struck a deep chord that’s enough.
Sorry tammy j I’m not considered strange. I LIVE my life & have REAL live friends. Isn’t that what life is suppose to be?
tammy j, how about Jean being strange? She married Andrew, his preferred name, even tho’ he wanted a family, garden, HOUSE & she wanted none of that. She consented finally to ONE child which she didn’t expect to live the 1st year. Jean renamed Andrew because Andrew was “too high-falutten”, but she doesn’t have to be Jeannie, or Kaitlin -Katie.
She sleeps most of the day because she’s up all night. “Andy” has to escape “up there” no matter the weather or cold—EVERYDAY. She doesn’t know any of her apartment neighbors because they are transients. All her friends are online–even I. She doesn’t call me but sends lots of email. She has a sister &
brother, but she’ll never share about them, not even to me who has known Jean for at least 30 yrs. –etc. etc. etc. Who’s strange?
I forgot to add that Kaitlin was a normal, healthy child, but Jean was afraid she’d die. Is that normal?
Yay, differences! Yay, life as a shared adventure!
As usual, different people have different experiences in life. That’s what makes blogging so much fun. Live as a shared adventure.
Comment by Cheerful Monk — January 14, 2015 @ 20:28 | Reply
You have a sister & brother I found out recently, tho’ I’ve know you for at least 30-40 years. You’ve never mentioned them. I thought your motto was “Life as a shared adventure”.
HOLY MOLY!!!
first… dear bhb…
i didn’t mean strange in a BAD way! a matter of semantics. and i chose the wrong word obviously! the marine is always calling me down on semantics.
i find you refreshingly frank. witty. eccentric. (now don’t go off on that either!…
in my book it’s a TOTAL compliment!) and well… as monk says…
yay differences!
I got you because I clicked on the link to your last blog. Cheerful Monk’s posts are good for doing that.
Andy went to a Sleep Clinic where they monitored him all night to see why he can’t sleep. Would you sleep if someone was moving around all night in that tiny apartment?
You are so adorable. What’s not to love with your LOLOLs.
LOLOL!!! love that response!!!
see what i mean?
i know you BOTH (you and monk) better now . . . and i am in TOTAL LIKE!
never met such unique people as those in my blog land friendships.
actually. they’re as dear to me and a real-live as the world itself.
i honestly think of all of us as in those days … say… in jane austen’s world.
people were friends but with distances so very far and only horse and carriage to travel… letters were what kept friendships together and growing.
i think of blogs and comments that way. a romantic illusion perhaps.
but then i’m a long winded romantic! 😀
I’ve always been a letter writer at heart because the conversations can be so much deeper than the ones I would get in person — we had a chance to think and ponder before replying. One-to-one conversations could have been that way with the right people, but the logistics would have been trickier. That’s why I share your love of conversations through blogging and commenting. If that’s being romantic, count me in!
Hobbies that aren’t practical? Plunking around on the piano, learning it for my own benefit after I had to give up the violin, even though I will likely never be good enough to accompany anyone, entertain anyone or teach anyone. It takes up time. It takes up some of the little energy I have available for physical activities. I’ll never again play in an orchestra and help uplift a small community, add depth to a string section. I plunk around on the piano solely because it gives me pleasure. I want to keep learning about the structure of music through using more than my ears and my brain. I want to use touch, too, to gain a deeper understanding.
Usefulness? That’s a different topic than hobbies that aren’t practical, one that veered away from the posed question. That’s a tough topic for me now that it’s been brought up, and it’s certainly a topic that has occupied my thoughts a great deal the last few years. I’m accustomed to being useful. The oldest child of a depressed mom, I grew up taking care of others. Now I’m struck by an illness that renders me far less useful and puts a loved one into a caretaking role. What’s my purpose? (By the way, I’m not suicidal.) My grandchildren know I love them unconditionally. I still work part-time as a writer for an online newsletter. I call friends when I know they’re having a rough time. Is that enough usefulness? Or, do I have to have a purpose that encompasses physically helping people? I thank bhb for reminding me of the presence of monks in the world, and I also am reminded of nuns who live a cloistered and contemplative life, praying constantly for the world. Just thinking of people who are willing to devote their lives to pray for others or to conceive their version of a better world provides me peace and hope. And that’s useful, too, isn’t it? It is for me, although perhaps not for bhb. I understand that, but perhaps it’s not our duty to decide who is useful to all of the world and who isn’t, because an individual’s outlook may be narrowed by good health as well as by poor health, or by a number of other factors. Me? I’m glad that there are all kind of people in the world. I agree with Tammy J about loving the discussion . . . with the exception of bhb’s discussion of CM’s loved ones’ supposed feelings. We have no way of knowing if those are their true feelings, but even if they were, “outing” them here is not the right thing to do and makes me intensely uncomfortable.
I took piano lessons for a few years, starting when Kaitlin was 8. I had wanted to take them as a kid but didn’t have the chance. Then when I graduated from college I took some for a while, but work and friends got in the way. I vowed that if I ever had children I would take lessons when they did. I practiced between a half-hour and an hour every day, and I continued the lessons even after Kaitlin quit. I stopped when I started taking computer courses to upgrade my skills and then went back to work. Thanks for the warm memories.
I had no desire to be good or to perform, it was the sheer joy of pressing the keys and having music come out. I don’t believe something has to be “useful” to be valuable.
In my book just the fact your grandchildren know you love them unconditionally is more than enough. And bless telephones and the internet for keeping us connected when we’re physically limited.
tammy is an inspiration about contributing via the internet. She’s touched so many lives in spite of all she’s been going through with her health. And her Captain Fritter who set up and maintains her blog in spite of his own problems….
Years ago I read a book by a nun, and it was comforting to know she was praying for us. I don’t know if praying helps, but sending out loving vibes is better than nothing, I figure. So when there’s nothing else I can do, I pray for people. I figure at least the act changes me, so I will be more loving and accepting of the people who come through my life.
Again thank you so much for writing! It means a lot to me.
A huge range of replies, many of them quite negative which makes me quite sad…the Net can only give us a sprinkling of star dust on who we really are; what we personally stand for and why we do whatever we “love”
What comes through clearly from some of the replies is sheer jealously that another has taken xyz stance on life!
Now to give you a fact about my name…I’ve had 3 surnames: the one I was born with, the married name and then when I left a brand new “cobbled together name” that I happen to love. I didn’t change my given first name but it’s not Cathy, but I no longer have what usually a second name – that more than anything throws people off!
On the “happiness” stance that is taking a lot of beating lately on other blogs, it’s only part of life if you chose to add it. There must be a huge % of people who don’t either believe in it or have it; or maybe have it under another guise.
What is the % of “monks” in the world, the penniless praying ones through to the ones that are well off in the terms of everyone else. Why should Jean change something she is comfortable with?
When I first got online everyone had a “handle” and you chose whatever you want…for a long I was another name AND now mostly I’m “cedar51” – does it matter!
I really like your Cathy in NZ. I read it as Cathy in NewZ, and it has a nice ring to it. But I agree, it’s the comments and sharing that count, not the name.
Well, except I really do love the name Cheerful Monk. I started this blog the same time I started stresstopower.com, otherwise known as Transforming Stress. Personal growth has been a hobby of mine ever since high school — I discovered self-hypnosis when I had a phobia of dentists and was facing a root canal. I’m still grateful for that book. It made me realize the power of the subconscious and how much power we have to change our lives. (Yes, as I recall you dislike self-help books, but some of them had ideas I could use.) The term transforming stress was just the idea that when we’re stressed/bothered we have a lot of motivation and energy at our disposal. How can we use it wisely, make us stronger, etc.?
But, in fact, no one really seemed to be interested in the idea, so I just wrote a weekly post there and one here at cheerfulmonk. I didn’t expect anyone to visit here, I mean, how crazy does “Happiness as a Spiritual Practice” sound? But it was an important part of me, so I wrote a weekly post here, too. As it turned out, I ended up writing about anything that came to mind on either blog, and this one got the most readers. I stopped writing new posts over at transforming stress a year ago last August, when I switched to daily posts here.
Mostly I’ve been just writing about what’s going on up on the land, and any other thing that has been catching my attention. But for several reasons, I decided in this post to stick my neck out and talk about something a bit deeper in me. It definitely generated a reaction!
I think I’ve probably driven someone away, so I think the negativity problem will take care of itself. If not, and if some future comments sound disrespectful, I’ll probably ask the commenter to modify them. This is supposed to be a friendly, welcoming blog, and it’s my job to keep it that way.
Thank you for all of your comments!
thanks for the reply…I chose to add NZ so that people would start more to think – “hey this person is 1000s of miles from here and she has the Net”
and then more recently – it was a bit of joke because when we hosted the Rugby World Cup, overseas news said “they are primitive, they don’t have the Net and stuff like that”…. the visitors arrived and they were shocked to find that our high speed Net and modern stuff wasn’t primitive AND we spoke English 🙂
maybe our roads with left hand drive was hard to fathom but that isn’t unusual there are lot of places in the world where you drive on the left!
maybe our speaking English isn’t the same as somewhere else, or the fact that apparently we speak too fast and it’s hard to understand…
and we eat strange foods like the spread known as either Vegemite or Marmite but do have the Golden Arches and other similar fast foods…
Andy and I were in New Zealand in 1965. It was a short stay, mostly in the South Island, but it was gorgeous. If I had to move to another country NZ would be my first choice. If they would let us in, of course, which I highly doubt. 🙂
oh btw – the fire and ice scenario – looks magnificent.
I can’t imagine living somewhere full time with that happening…
Andy does take some great pictures.