Mountain Top

New Kuti for rainy season

Chill out

Special offering at Uposata Day

In every dish – whether you like it or not – there´s plenty of chili – you´ve got to take what is given…

Sometimes you think now I know this kind of food or that one, maybe that one has no chili (you wished) but again and again you get fooled. What you thought to be peas or beans turn out to be chilis in the end – every time. After some time nearly all dishes taste like hot spices for sure.

Not just outside hot temperatures, inside even more so.

Flying time

“With regard to external factors, I don’t envision any other single factor like friendship with admirable people as doing so much for a monk in training, who has not attained the heart’s goal but remains intent on the unsurpassed safety from bondage. A monk who is a friend with admirable people abandons what is unskillful and develops what is skillful.”
( Iti 17)

After 7 months in this major Asian Asylum finally fully ordained – and now in need for a change of perspective – moving direction Matale in order to be in further isolation for the upcoming intensive retreat. Visa issues settled for another year and other obstacles which seemed to make a further stay impossible were able to be resolved thanks to very good Dharma friends.

Habits

Conditionality means that there are certain unchanging patterns to contingency and change – one of those patterns being that unskillful intentions, based on craving and delusion, invariably lead to unpleasant results.

A true friend

Trust is not easy to find in this world.

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter,
he that has found one has found a treasure.

Let us not throw away our lives
by throwing away that friend that is in us.

Heart matters

Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or through anger or irritation
wish for another to suffer.

Working away in colour preparations
for dying robes at the fire bowls.
Boiling water together with bark for two days,
then draining it.

Nutty rat race

Armin meant well when bringing me nuts in the evening, so I would have some proteins the next morning. Problem was, the stall that sold them added some delicious smelling fried onions and put it all into little plastic sacks. Although I put it on top of the wall inside the kuti thinking I would’nt smell it and surely no animal would come into the kuti… you never know till you try… Sure enough at 4.00 am while meditating I hear strange noises and could’nt make them out at first till I remembered the bag … And there it was sitting next to it: a handsize big rat nibbling at the plastic, had made it’s way through the not too well thatched roof and could’nt hold back with the nose senses driving it “nuts”. When I put on the torch it slowly made it’s way back up through the roof whole but kept looking if I was going to go back to medi. In the end I got myself some plaster and tried my best to arrange with my new neighbour. Anyway I took the delicious nuts to breakfeast and it did’nt take long they were gone, as well as the smell out of the room. No more storing food inside from now on. Good merit for Armin, he supported the whole sangha with proteins. Well done!

Release

Purifying our hearts from pain and discontent brings about
peace and happiness beyond reach of all suffering and stress
in the same way as relieving ourselves from burdens and debts.

Knockin’ on Heaven’s door

Not quite Papillon, yet

A not so sweet looking caterpillar showed up in bed last night.
Must have got caught in the robes while hanging outside.
What appeared at first to be a nightmare´s encounter
turned out to be a rather real experience.
Crawling up the back in the middle of the night
causing unpleasant pains similar to those of fire ants.
As caterpillar stings may cause severe rashes
the night turned out to be somewhat dodgy-
throwing out all civaras –
trying to make peace with the situation.
Contemplating this hairy slimy creature somewhat closer,
it certainly did not look like anything that might turn
into something wonderful or exceptional.
No signs of colours or magical beauty
which butterflies tend to show off while performing wildly in the air,
displaying their shiny and colourful wings
and children run after or even might want to catch.
In the end we made peace and it sneaked off – not quite so gracefully –
into the jungle and probably somewhat bewildered,
meeting a bold human being in the middle of the night.
No rashes showed up after all, nothing more than mind games.

May all beings be happy – no matter how ugly.

Du(s)ty times

After 3 days full of anger because of confusion and lack of concentration –
finally back at peace of mind.

Having killed anger you sleep in ease,
having killed anger you do not grieve.
The Buddha