Letting Go

They say that in India there is a particularly clever way of catching monkeys. As the story goes, hunters will cut a hole in a coconut that is just big enough for a monkey to put its hand through. Then they will drill two smaller holes in the other end, pass a wire through, and secure the coconut to the base of a tree. Then they put a banana inside the coconut and hide. The monkey comes down , puts his hand in and takes hold of the banana. The hole is crafted so that the open hand can go in but the fist cannot get out. All the monkey has to do to be free is let go of the banana. But it seems most monkeys don't let go !

Corinna's wonderful visitor !

Tai Chi

Soft and spacious, forward backward, expanding and contracting silently magically renewing this life.

    You do not need to leave your room....

        Remain sitting at your table and listen.

           Do not even listen, simply wait.

        Do not even wait, be still and solitary.

 The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.

                 It has no choice.

         It will roll in ecstacy at your feet. 



                   Franz Kafka

Last Nights lessons Repulse The Monkey, application with Simon and Embrase Tiger And Return To The Mountain.

Love is the Way

I re-tell this story as I heard it from a good friend.
Lucy's father died when she was very young and still in primary school. Her mother was brokenhearted and so it seemed to this little girl that she had lost both parents.
In school she would ask to be allowed out to the bathroom and on the way she would steal some money from the teachers purse. Then on her way home, she would buy a bar of chocolate for her mother in the hopes of cheering her up.
One day at the end of school the teacher said, "Lucy, wait for me and I will walk home with you today". So Lucy waited and they walked home together. When they got to the shop Lucy went in and bought the bar of chocolate. The teacher asked Lucy "Who is the bar of chocolate for?" Lucy said "It is for my Mum to cheer her up". Then the teacher said "And how about you Lucy? Would you like a bar of chocolate too ?" , "Yes please", the little girl said. This little girl (now a woman) told my friend that she never again stole from her teacher. So for this teacher too," Love is the Way."

Thanks to David Nelson for these great photos taken in the library.