Tree reverence

Not sure what the story of this is, an ancient relief from a stupa in India at the Met, but trees are important in early Buddhism. The Buddha got up from 6 weeks of intensive meditation that led to his enlightenment, and bowed to the tree.

I counted 11 new trees planted in my neighborhood, thank you NYC.

Michael Kenna - Spring Poplar Trees, Pavia, Italy (2019)

.......... 

When I Am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.

Monday

 

Henry the tortoise wasn't there today and not lurking under the water when the sunlight came up. The wind goes north to south, right to left, across the lake today. Plans fly in and bank to land into the wind at laguardia. When it's busy one plane ever 45 seconds, and depending how buys in 45 second chunks like 90 seconds, and so on. 

Lake meditation, I just look at the lake, the birds, the trees in the distance. I think about eagles dropping carp that are too big and heavy on land to eat later. There was mouse on the trail, bloody, so I thought maybe a bird left a snack for later. 

Ran into Eric the fisherman and his wife, and he said the third racoon passed away, and he told the rangers. 

Racoon

There was a racoon who didn't run away, and just shirked when I walked by. I talked to the fisherman and he said there were 2 dead racoons down the path. He even wondered if the 3 hobos living under the bridge had been trapping them. He asked them and they denied it. This guy seemed to shake the in the cold. I thought for a while to call 311, he might be rabid. I searched for a while to see if I could fill out an online form, but I couldn't find it. So I resolved to meditate and if he was still there on the way out, I would definitely call. He wasn't there on the walk out. No point in reporting a sick racoon whereabouts unknown. 

Been thinking about the 3 marks of existence, impermanence, suffering and no permanent self, and this racoon wasn't long for this world, he seemed sick. I watched the second half of Lion King last night. My daughter watched it up to Mufasa being killed, but deprived herself of the recovery from the loss with Hakuna Matata. I had to look at the recovery, and see Simba raise his son the way Mufasa raised him, to the pride. The point is there's a cycle of life. I'm not going to save every sick racoon. 

Henry was in the water today when I arrived for my 20 minute lake meditation. I offset lake meditation with my 30 minutes of anapanasati and the occasional metta, karuna, mudita and upekkha meditations, and pure awareness, and 6 elements. As the sun became more tempting he wrestled his way up onto the reeds and out of the water. He's definitely a sun lover, and will move to the best of his ability as a tortoise to catch sun rays. I was tempted to help him out and lift him into a sunny spot, but invasive red eared tortoise carry many bacteria and germs that don't effect them, but effect humans.

 Today the lake had lots of birds, more than usual. You can hardly see them in this terrible phone camera photo. These perhaps loons sit low in the water and often go under water. There are other birds too, geese, ducks and seagulls. They flew over and then flew away. 

First freeze

 

Cori calls him Henry. I kind of wanted a Buddhist name, but I don't want to ask the hive mind.

Fairies and Elves

Reading Thoreau's journal, he mentions ferries and elves. 

My tortoise meditation friend. He's a red eared slider, same species as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Supposedly it's a pet species, and thus fairly invasive since humans are messy. They're from the midwest. They're on the list of the top 100 invasive species. "Red-eared slider turtles are the world's most commonly traded reptile, due to their relatively low price, and usually low food price, small size, and easy maintenance." And, "Reptiles are asymptomatic (meaning they suffer no adverse side effects) carriers of bacteria of the genus Salmonella."

My birder friend helped me to identify the hawk as a Coopers Hawk. Ran into the birder and the fisherman. I'm the meditator. There's a joke in there somewhere. Or a loan.

Tracked down a renaming of birds article.

Fall day

The quarter waning moon is just out of frame to the right. Lots of planes in the air. Planes seemed to be taking off from La Guardia. 

Water was low, I check and it's low tide, peaking around 1pm.

My picture of him flying away is too blurry, I think it's a hawk. My birder friend says it's a Cooper Hawk.

Little guy wasn't scare of me. Getting some sun. Not the one I met nesting and laying eggs this summer.