Clear Vision

After days of relentless rain, grey skies and cold I woke this morning to a cloudless blue sky.

One of the objectives of Buddhism is to see things as they really are. However how do you know what is reality?

Good question; if you accept we all create our own reality by the quality of our mind then we are all seeing things differently are we not?

This morning I went to the meditation sanctuary at The Findhorn Community to attend a Thich Nat Hann meditation group. The meditations were wonderful, sitting meditation, walking meditation and then sitting meditation again. As the day was so superb with amazing clarity the walking meditation in the original garden was especially penetrating. The blossom on the fruit trees, the flowers, the bark and moss on the tree trunks stabbed me into awareness.

However after the meditations John the leader read out the five training principals. Now I am aware of the five precepts but have never heard them expressed in such a way before. I have read many of Thich Nat Hann's books and found them to be gentle and inspiring. John explained that some people at Plum Village (The Thich Nat Hann community in France ) had decided to apply these precepts to contemporary life. For me and several others in the group these precepts in this form closed down the expansive liberation which was originally intended.

As an artist I love to look at things closely and I know that since taking up art after my business career I find myself really looking at everything in a new way. That is my reality but is it the ultimate reality? I don't have the answer but I would say if someone else is trying to impose their reality on you and it does not feel comfortable it is not the right reality for you.