{"id":1524,"date":"2016-04-13T06:58:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T13:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.evergreen.edu\/camino-faypau28\/?p=128"},"modified":"2016-04-13T06:58:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T13:58:57","slug":"paul-wednesday-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/paul-wednesday-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul \u2013 Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bamboos<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Brownie, our dog, sat looking up the tree, ears cocked, tail tensely wagging. He was attending to a monkey. No thought disturbed his total concentration, no worry for tomorrow. Brownie was the nearest thing to pure contemplation that I have ever seen. <\/em><\/p>\n

You may have experienced some of this yourself when you were totally absorbed watching a cat at play. Here is a formula for contemplation, as good as any I know: Be totally in the present. <\/em><\/p>\n

Drop every thought of the future, drop every thought of the past, drop every image and abstraction, and come into the present. Contemplation will arise! <\/em><\/p>\n

After years of training, the disciple begged his master to give him enlightenment. The master led him to a bamboo grove and said, “See that bamboo, how tall it is? See that other one there, how short it is?” <\/em><\/p>\n

And the disciple was enlightened.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They say Buddha practiced every form of asceticism known to the India of his times, in an effort to attain enlightenment. All in vain. One day he sat under a bodhi tree and enlightenment occurred. He passed on the secret of enlightenment to his disciples in words that must seem strange to the uninitiated: “When you draw in a deep breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a deep breath. And when you draw in a shallow breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a shallow breath. And when you draw in a medium-sized breath, oh monks, be aware that you are drawing in a medium-sized breath.” Awareness. Attention. Absorption. <\/em><\/p>\n

This kind of absorption one observes in little children. They are close to the Kingdom. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bamboos Brownie, our dog, sat looking up the tree, ears cocked, tail tensely wagging…. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2832,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"geo":{"latitude":42.3776207,"longitude":-3.5069399,"description":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/caminomap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}