VivsMountain

Well all the typing is finished and now I've started proof reading, this part could take a while too, especially as I can't spell and I never learned to punctuate - Oh you noticed!.


Feeling just a little low right now, we're getting close to the marathon and if I'm honest I am disappointed. The one thing I always seem to get right is failing while others consistently excel at success. Bit sick of still playing the understudy after so many years and probably a bit more cross that I still let it get to me. I will get over it though.

Reminding me of a little story.

In order to tell you the story I need to first tell you why I bought the book at all. It's called 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' and it's about Buddhism, well I think it is because I'm struggling to get very far into it. I thought that Buddhists always come across as quite calm and I decided that maybe I could use a bit of that although I don't believe the Delhi Lama has a 9 till 5 desk job or does a great deal of washing and ironing but I figured if just a little bit of their inner peace could rub off on me then it would be worth the read. Also, Joanna Lumley said it was good and I love Joanna Lumley. Anyway, the writing is very small and there are pages that I have read over and over again and still have no idea what they are about. Most of what I have read so far is about dying and having a 'good' death. I suppose if you have a Buddhists belief in the after life then the perspective is a bit changed but I was finding this all a little bit morbid to be honest. I tried to stick with it in the hope I would get to the 'living' bit but I've had to take a break for a while but I will go back to it. Anyway, one story in the book did particularly strike a cord and it went a bit like this:

There were two religious men walking somewhere, one was the others teacher/master. Now their religion says that they should have nothing to do with women. They get to a river/stream/pond? and see a young girl who is unable to get across the water. The teacher picks the girl up and carries her across, on the other side he puts her down and they carry, separately on their way. Now the younger man is absolutely furious that his master has completely ignored his teachings or whatever you call them and he has done such a terrible thing. He spends the rest of the journey asking himself 'how could he have done such a thing'. In the end the teacher/master asks him if he is alright and the young man can't contain himself, he says 'no, I'm not, you have taught me that I shouldn't have anything to do with women and without a thought you picked up that girl and carried her across the water' 'Brother' said the teacher/master 'look, I am not longer holding on to her - are you?'

Now I thought that was a good story.