Leah and I visited a number of Buddhist monasteries during our month-long trekking trip in Nepal this past fall. The feeling of peace in those spiritual places was unmistakable. Now that we’re back home in the US, I’m reading books about Buddhism, hoping to learn more, but I’m having to take my reading kind of slowly. This Buddhism stuff is heavy.
Yes, on the face of it, Buddhism is fairly simple:
--Be compassionate toward others.
--Don’t cling to the trappings of everyday life.
--Basically live by the principles that Christianity calls the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments.
Beyond the above, however, some of my reading makes me wonder whether I’m smart enough to be studying Buddhism. I literally go through the books with a highlighter marker. I read passages, read them again, then reread them. Some of the ideas make sense to me, many do not. I try to go easy on myself (this is a Buddhist thing--to accept.) Buddhism has been around for two thousand years. I guess I can’t expect to get it overnight.
Buddhism talks about living in the moment. Monks teach lessons like: "When you are chopping wood, chop wood." Meaning, (I guess) "I’m chopping wood today, but not thinking about my meeting with my tax man tomorrow." This in-the-moment philosophy is probably a good thing for a photographer. We can concentrate on what is happening now.
Several days ago I walked past a small pond on our property. A fallen log was floating on the pond, and there was a beautiful lichen, reflected perfectly by the water. Birds were singing and I heard them. Frogs were croaking and I heard them too. But my brain kind of turned the volume down on nature’s soundtrack, and my eyes were all about seeing.
Maybe I had a kind of Baby Buddhist Meditation Moment.
Or maybe I’ve just been reading too much.
One thing I know for sure, I was standing by the pond as I stood by the pond. I'm happy to tell you that I wasn’t doing my taxes.
