SHACK 70 HERE AND THERE AGAIN

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Following on from 'have a cup of tea' I decided to test my new found perception. 

I approached Sensei and said 'please may I learn Kendo'  'why so said Sensei' ' I heard that is the most dangerous because a samurai sword can cut a person in two, so I want to test my fear and muga mushin (awareness and stillness, mind permeating body). 'hmm I do not feel you are ready'  I pleaded with him several times.

Suddenly-- wham --- he hit me hard on the top of the head, the shock was so great, he had never hit me or anyway hurt me, he was tough but fair.  He growled and made a terrible face, I ran out of the Zen-do.  It was winter and got dark early, a quick cut home was across a cemetery, I would not do that in the dark, I did however.

When I got home my beautiful late Jewish Mother said 'Oh my God what's that bump on your head 'I said I asked Sensei to teach me Kendo, Japanese sword fighting'  She said ' why don't you learn a trade, make money, marry a Jewish girl, have a family, be somebody'  I just went to bed.

What happened next took place over the following three weeks; as I came out of my house to go to school Sensei jumped at me, he caught me like this coming from the Dojo, from football training, nearly everywhere, he was stalking me like a Ninja. I even locked my bedroom door put string to the handle with some cans on so if he came in the cans would rattle.  I was so wound up that my Mother said she would ask him to stop and I said it will be over soon its part of the training, so I thought.

Then one day as I was walking down a hill by the side of a park, I felt like a presence, a strong feeling of being followed, I turned round quickly and there he was coming towards  me in a Ninja stance. I said in a very rude way 'Oh no you don't you so and so(impolite words).  He said 'Good you to feel me, you sensed without hearing, seeing, touching and now you see a Katana (Samurai sword) comes so fast as by a master or advanced student, you could not see it only feel it'

After that I developed a sharp sense and I was difficult to be thrown or be frightened'.

Unfortunately Sensei went back home and when I said I wanted to follow him he said 'Your destiny is here, you can teach now if you come to my country I will cut your head off' Just before he left I had a serious accident, he said if you want to walk again you must use 'Yamatadoshi' I think it means Ki(Chi), sometimes translated as original Samurai Ki energy or spirit.  I did and I recovered.

I was walking up a slight hill to the High Road and my Judo gi (Judo kit) in a towel and it was like a bundle, and was coming back from judo training, several of the lads and I were already doing Judo with a school master and Black belt Frank W Nash from the Budokwai(large Judo club in Victoria, later moved to South Kensington) and I was alone, when a voice with Japanese accent said 'you do Judo' I turned round as the voice went right through me so to speak and I was looking an old man.  He asked where I trained and I told him, in a friends basement.  He turned  up a few says late, he wore a red / pink belt and we thought a beginner.  Try as we may we could not move or throw him, once he said to me and at other times when he easily threw me ' Oh the tatami must slippery, who put the banana peel there' and would go into fits of real belly laughter.

He took over from Mr Nash who recognized who he was.  When Sensei visited the Budokwai one day(the only time)the high grade Japanese master there fell(the late Gunji Koizumi) to his knees and said Sensei and something in Japanese I never went to the Budokwai again.

SHACK

 

SHACK 69 HERE AND THERE

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I was given a koan by Sensei just as I was throwing a Judoka in a shoulder throw, it caught me off guard and I dumped my partner unceremoniously on the tatami, he complained but was OK. I could not remember what the koan was, on returning home it came to me.  Traditionally I will not share the koan. I broke the tradition in energygrid and geofffreed online and the full story and that will suffice))

On contemplating it and going to Sensei who said, intellectual explanation, no your using logic and so on.  The frustration grew.

The pressure was mounting as I stepped out of the bedroom to go to the bathroom, not thinking about anything, it happened, I knew, what it was I knew, yet I have no idea, it was a knowing beyond understanding.

I rushed to the door, my dear late mother said where are you going? I said to Sensei, she said you have a pajama top, jeans and slippers, you can't go out like that?

I did go out by bus and tube, people staring at me with my strange attire. I reached Sensei's house and knocked at the door, his daughter (before he became a monk he married and had children he still looked after them the best he could but did not fulfill his marital obligations and status) came to the door and said 'you should only visit Sensei by invitation' 'Sensei said let him in it's alright' 'I was flustered and babbled Sensei I know, I know' 'He said sit down and have a cup of tea, now you will never see the world like others and your troubles will now begin'

I went home with a pair of zori for my feet and ill fitting borrowed coat. I was bewildered and when it settled down he was right something had fundamentally shifted in my perception and I could not understand or care too anyway.

SHACK

SHACK 68 THE LECTURE

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The students filed into the lecture theater and I was presenting a lecture on alternative energy source and communities that were experimenting and using them, these were the early days in this subject.

The theater was three quarters filled and as I got going, by the way I had two tea breaks of 20 minutes after an 1hr and half lecture, with a 1 hrs lunch break and afternoon as in morning.

There were many crossed arms and feet showing an uncomfortable reception and sniggers and at odd times a shout by an older voice of rubbish which set off laughter, mainly like guffaws.    

As we came to first tea break and biscuit binge, this old voice 'stop all of you' and old craggy man who was an emeritus professor, 'He said can you really prove any of this?  'I said well not four miles away there is such an experiment, I am willing to pay a taxi fare for two students and you to visit it, and if it not as to what I have said I will waive my lecture fee, and I suggest we  have an extended tea break and reassemble when you arrive back'.

After we had reassembled the professor came towards me waving his walking cane, I thought he was going to hit me with it.  The lecture theater was now only quarter filled. ' He came to me and put his hand on my shoulder and said ' I apologize for being so rude and shouting I have been and seen these things and they do work and well. However you are a man before your time, big industry and wealthy business men will not let it happen, listen to this man and take note. As for me I am steeped in my ways and cannot change although I have seen it with my own eyes, you see what will happen if I take this up it will pull the rug from beneath my feet and send my world crashing, good luck and be careful for you might regret this as they might come after you, I know because I had these ideas and was forced into submission and joined the club, I made a compromise between ambition and a safe life, good day to you sir'

I stood there in silence, I merely then just answered questions. The Chancellor of the University had heard about this and came to apologize, I had finished the lecture an hour before time. The Chancellor said he would pay me the full fee and expenses.

I pondered on the whole incident on the way back whilst sitting in a first class seat on the train.  Enjoying the hospitality of the first class seating, quietness and refinery, I felt safe and comfortable and could feel what it would be like to have to sit on the roof of the train or board a train such as seen in India where everybody piles in, roof, back front, and so on.  

Perhaps the world and myself are not used to such radical change.

SHACK

SHACK 67 LONELY

crazy but wise

On my many travels in my electrical career I was part of a team.  The team comprised of two electricians and two apprentices of which I was one.

The electricians were married and were promiscuous which upset me because I knew their wives and had to be silent about their nefarious affairs. This really did hurt me to the core and suppressing  it  had a price to pay---anger and frustration.

The two sparks and one apprentice used to go to the local dance hall and I sort out Judo, Kendo, Taichi and Meditation groups and various keep fit activities. We all met later in the digs (ours were bed and breakfasts of the cheaper kind and sparks are the name for electricians). They boasted of their sexual encounters.  They thought me weird and that did cause a kind of benign rift.

Often when I came out from my activity, most of the time in Northern Britain in fairly run down areas, I would visit the local smokey joe (workingman's cafe) some were open until about 22.00 hrs and I noticed many an elderly cloth hat and black coated gentleman sitting there and had been for hours, sipping and making last his cup of tea.

He (they) seemed to have a vacant stare which seemed to suggest loneliness, depression and boredom. I asked several cafe owners, many gruff and unshaven, smoking roll ups and coughing often, 'do they (he) come in often? 'Some come in all day and just have a pie and many teas'.  He went onto say that they are 'unemployed and live in one room(in those days TV's were coming in and expensive) some had an old radio, many were single or widowers and their families poor and gone to search for work elsewhere.

I tried to engage the man in conversation, he told me to fuck off and leave him alone.  Talking to a local police officer and part time counseling in his spare time, he told me of the loneliness, some were minors and the mines had closed down, some were ex army and and became alcoholic from the ravages of war, he said loneliness was there main problem, they didn't have the social skills to join a club for veterans and felt bitter that God and the country neglected them. So they sat and stared vacantly over strong tea and watched the world go by, aimlessly by.

I felt a touch of that when I could not find an activity, the digs had no facilities like a lounge, so I used to walk to explore the shoddy unkempt neighborhood, avoiding the pubs and sometimes going into the cafe for the 'cuppa that cheers' I could relate to the man in the cloth hat, no tie and stud shirt, for I was away from home, had nothing in common with my workmates and only meditation saved me from the abyss of loneliness.

I often wondered if they looked within and not to the passing scenario outside which was often dark and raining, cold and damp with very little heating in their room sometimes in a sterile hostel, where the wall paper was peeling off and the dampness made patches on the wall in a tapestry of despair and the worn dirty carpet a mosaic of misery, if the meditation would lift their spirits because they would co join with spirit and they would realize this is a temporary existence and letting go of the despair would and could open a space for something much more wholesome to enter. 

SHACK  

SHACK 66 ASHAMED

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Arriving at the airport at about 21.30 the flight scheduled for 23.00 I saw a few shops open, it was a small airport by comparison to some.

I was the only passenger in the place and there was man cleaning the floor.  I went into a shop selling native crafts.  The beautiful young girl assistant was very distant and almost aggressive. I bought a dream catcher and a medicine pipe.  She wrapped it and almost threw it at me, I put the change and a donation in the box to help the indigenous people in that region.

I went up to the man who was cleaning, he was indigenous and said had I offended the young lady and told him of my experience.  He said in a kindly way, that she was young and did not like people who took their land and exploited them and bought souvenirs which were replicas of sacred ritualistic cultural objects.   

I said should I return them and not ask for a refund and that I had no idea I had offended her and her peoples.  He said no she will probably get angry just leave it and go.  

On the six hour flight returning home I felt terrible and guilty as to the exploitation, the killing of animals for their fur not for food, the shame I felt for my race and I still feel ashamed, however I got a great compassion and try to see where it comes from and cultivate it.

Indeed the greed and avarice of those early conquerors reminds me of the conversation between a general and a chief. 'We want your land'  ' We cannot give you the land'  'Then we will take it by force'  ' No you do not understand, the land belongs to the Great Spirit, we can give you the things that grow and that ' 'We will take it, you had better leave or else'

We still do this, all that is here in our lifetimes is on loan, we possess not a thing, not even our bodies, for everything is transient, expedient, here today and gone tomorrow.  Make sure to be grateful and share whatever you can, because you never know when the tap on the left shoulder beckons one to leave, and it comes suddenly.

SHACK

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SHACK 65 THE FIND

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The two boys were friends and went to the same school. One was the son of the Chief the other the son of an air force Captain.

There was an unfortunate crash in the high mountains of an air force plane.  Search parties reported after a long while they had found the bodies. There was a military funeral.

The boys were out hunting and fishing and were in their summer vacation and so tented out. They came across the crashed craft and bodies.  They reported it to the Captain and who  went to the air force and said what was found. They exhumed the coffins and found they were filled with rocks.

It was suppressed from the media and the captain was dismissed in a fake court martial and both the Chief and Captain's family were threatened.

The captain was broke, no house no money, no pension.  The Chief invited the family of the captain to live in the community and work there as member.

The Chief saw the captain was a great photographer and offered a loan to set him up in a business.  The business thrived and after a few years the captain went to the chief and offered to pay back the loan.  The chief said no, in our tradition we do not take loans back if we can afford them, or interest on the loans, one day it comes back to us in some way, however you must solemnly promise if someone comes to you in trouble and you help them financially you will do the same as I did for you.  The Captain promised.

The Captain was the photographer that did all the shots at my presentations and TV appearances and videos with audio on Radio.

SHACK  

SHACK 64 FARMERS

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These two farms were many miles apart and they communicated by short wave radio.  Once a year they swapped equipment.  They hauled the machinery by large lorries and that was the only time they met face to face.

One of the farmers sold up and did not tell the other farmer, so when the new farmer came he had no equipment which he had previously seen on a visit from a another country and decided to farm in another farm of his choice.

The farmer called the police and said his equipment had been stolen.  The police new the situation and contacted the other farmer who explained he had come for the equipment and did not see anybody and thought is it was OK to take it as per arrangement.

The new farmer said it was OK and he would honor that and was amazed he had not been told he was leaving or explained the arrangement to the new farmer.

The police laconically replied  'that's the way of it around here, people live so isolated that many just leave, sometimes not taking anything with them'.

This would be a nice way to leave when our time is up for living on Earth, no karma, no return----that's for me

SHACK