Good evening.

Good afternoon.

Contemplatively/ meditatively speaking, the secret to getting somewhere is to go nowhere.

“Humans love to add, to expand, and to clarify. And in doing so, we create complexity… The irony is that we also have an innate attraction to simplicity.“

— Dan Cullum

"Wherever you are, is the place you need to be."

— Anon

It’s a long way down for little old arthritic legs…

The end of a tiring week of work. Pretty knackered but, as always, rewarded and fulfilled.

The weather has been such a blessing and is forecast to continue for another week so am also grateful for that too.

Glass of red wine anyone? 🍷

”No matter how many years you sit doing zazen, you will never become anything special.”

— ‘Homeless’ Kodo Sawaki

Dog & dinner.

Good afternoon.

“You never truly need what you want. That is the main and thoroughgoing key to serenity.”

— Albert Ellis

Contemplation runs through all of life.

Good morning.

During meditation this evening there was a noticing that all sights, sounds, sensations and thoughts were inextricably interwoven into the fabric of awareness equally and evenly.

Open space made of everything.

Good afternoon.

I don’t know anything about tech but this made me smile Justfuckingusehtml

There seems to be two distinct kinds of so-called ‘spiritual’ activity one can engage in. On the one hand there is a search and a seeking for external answers or The Answer – the ultimate healing Truth or as Zen teacher Barry Magid would say ‘curative fantasies.’

And on the other hand there is an ongoing rigorous curiosity into the nature of one’s own mind. Intense open-ended scrutiny and honest investigation of reality as we experience it for ourselves requiring no external beliefs, wisdom, teachings or guides.

Ironically, as the Buddha is thought to have said, ‘be a light unto yourself.’  Or as Robert Saltzman says ‘you can only find your own mind, no one else’s.’

Paradoxically it is the latter activity that actually reveals what the former seeks.

This month’s cult cinema club is showing Pedro Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tonight.

I haven’t seen it since it first came out in 1988 so am really looking forward to it!

At school I was a prime target for bullies. To avoid the inevitable I somehow managed to develop a way of evading them. I became invisible. I made myself disappear. I effectively suppressed myself out of existence in their eyes.

While I successfully avoided bullying confrontations I instead successfully inculcated a behaviour pattern that would fundamentally shape the rest of my life.

Although naturally introverted I added an extra developmental layer of passivity, quietude and avoidance. Instead of being present I retreat. Instead of standing up I remain seated. Instead of speaking out I stay silent.

I am grateful not to have suffered the direct consequences of bullying like so many of my peers but the bullies still managed to cast a different kind of shadow.

Good morning.

"Before I studied Zen, mountains were mountains and rivers were rivers. When I had studied Zen for some time, mountains were no longer mountains and rivers were no longer rivers. But now that I have understood Zen, mountains are once again mountains and rivers are once again rivers."

— Qingyuan Weixin

Where do you think 'you' are?

More specifically, where is your sense of self located when you think or say 'I', 'me', or 'my'.

What are you referring to? Is anything there?

When you look for who's looking can you actually find anything to call 'me'?

"When the mind recognizes itself, there is no thing to see there. It’s just wide open."

— Tsoknyi Rinpoche

I’m not going to get carried away by my team, Sunderland AFC, making it to the playoff final at Wembley next Saturday.

They face a formidable opponent in Sheffield United and a win for us would be a remarkable achievement given that we’d lost all five of our previous matches prior to our semi-final victories over Coventry.

I was at Wembley with my son for another playoff final which we lost so I’m not tempted to get my hopes up. That said…

‘TIL THE END

Who’s that?

Spent the day battling the garden and have the bramble scars to show for it! Exhausted but glad to have kept the effulgence at bay.

Such beautiful weather and another week of it forecast…

“I have been filled with hopes, fears, despairs, longings, happiness. Expansive moments, contracting moments. All of these fluctuations have at one stage been called 'me.'

— James Low

Originally a one off on the BBC but now a series on ITV, The Assembly is currently my favourite TV show and the best thing I’ve seen on the box for… well, a very long time.

When a group of neurodiverse, autistic and learning disabled individuals interview celebrities, magic happens.

The first episode featuring Danny Dyer is a thing of great beauty. A rare example of a stereotypically, masculine ‘man’s man’ allowing himself to be authentically vulnerable and demonstrating great sensitivity. Very moving. It’s also hilarious too. I can’t remember a show where I cried with emotion and laughter within the space of a few minutes.

I’m not bingeing it (although I really want to!) but only watching one episode at a time, to savour it like a fine wine.

Sunderland vs. Coventry for a place in the playoff final…

“Don’t think different thoughts. Or better thoughts. Or spiritual thoughts. All thinking does is take us to more thinking.”

— Stop, Men’s Work

Good afternoon.

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”

— Bertrand Russell

Good morning.

“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.”

— Joan Didion

The full fruition of Zen arises as it disappears.

Everything we need to know, or can understand about consciousness, is contained within the experience of consciousness itself.

“But by what immediate apprehension can we grasp this principle that is higher than intelligence? We may answer that we apprehend it by that part of us which resembles it. For there is something of it in us. Or, rather, there is no place where it is not..."

— Plotinus, Enneads 3.8.9

Good morning.

Wet and lush after the rain.

Originally no Zen. Thank you. Go home. Drink tea.

— Zen saying

You can’t follow The Way, you are The Way.

“Fanaticism is always a compensation for hidden doubt.”

— Carl Jung

Good afternoon.

“Paradox is a characteristic of the Gnostic writings. It does more justice to the unknowable than clarity can do, for uniformity of meaning robs the mystery of its darkness and sets it up as something that is known. That is a usurpation, and it leads the human intellect into hubris by pretending that it, the intellect, has got hold of the transcendent mystery by a cognitive act and has ‘grasped’ it. The paradox therefore reflects a higher level of intellect and, by not forcibly representing the unknowable as known, gives a more faithful picture of the real state of affairs.”

— Carl Jung

“Refusal of The Call Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless—even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown.”

— Joseph Campbell

Bob’s favourite spot.

I’m currently reading a couple of blogs which talk about AI in two very different and contrasting ways.

Loud Thinking is pragmatic, down to earth and humorous. It cuts through much of the current hyperbole surrounding AI and is very much in the ‘settle down, don’t panic, AI is an amazing tool’ camp.

In stark contrast is The Ten Thousand Things. Ordinarily a blog about the nature of mind and the attendant philosophy and psychology, it has latterly become a psychoanalytic exploration of AI by the author Robert Saltzman PhD, an ex psychotherapist.

I enjoy and appreciate both perspectives as it seems to me that whatever AI may or may not be remains unknowable. It is neither one thing nor another and we pigeonhole it at our peril.

Good morning.

The DJ tonight played Miss You by The Rolling Stones which always reminds me when Prince was once asked what Rolling Stones song he wished he’d written, to which he replied Miss You. Fair enough.

He was then asked which U2 song he wished he’d written to which he replied: I could have written any of them but wouldn’t want to. Ouch!

Good afternoon.

Good morning.

You have to write the story of your life before you can forget it and leave it behind.