Finding Happiness

Many believe that happiness is only possible when they have achieved certain objectives: finding a loving partner, landing a well paid job, attaining status at work or in the community, buying a new car, having nice holiday. I believe happiness, joy and peace come from being completely present in the Here and Now. Peace and happiness arise from the simplicity of just being and avoiding the internal mental commentary we carry in our minds through out our daily lives.

Happiness can be achieved directly, in any circumstances, right now. It is not an objective that you reach after long endurance, but a process that you participate in here and now. It is under your nose. True happiness is a peaceful state which arises when the anxieties of everyday life are quietened. A happy mind is naturally a peaceful mind.

From the moment of our birth, our minds become full of habits; the habit of unhappiness arises when our mind is focused on past unhappy experiences or fears about the future. When we dwell on our habitual unhappy mind, we fail to see that suffering is often the result of wrong perceptions. By focusing on and practising positive states of mind, we encourage our own mind to make new habits, "happy habits", and we begin to transform our lives. Therefore happiness is not a matter of faith, but a matter of practice.

Springtime at Bystock Lake (The Wood Element)

Walking beside Bystock Lake in early spring with the sound of wood peckers drumming on dead wood, fighting mallard ducks trying to establish territories and Great tits and Chaffinches darting through the trees. I try to look at Bystock Lake with my knowledge of the Chinese “Five Elements”.



The Wood Element
The element associated with spring is “Wood,” an Immature Yang element, influencing the climate with Wind and Coolness. The dominant colures are bright blues in the sky and greens of buds as they begin to fill and open. Anger is found in the emotions as “sap rises” and males in their peak physical condition fight for mates or to protect their females like the mallard ducks on the lake chasing off the other males they see as threats and the chaffinches darting from tree to tree calling to attract the females and establish territories.



We look the east to welcome the early morning sun, a sign that winter is ending and warmer weather is on its way and with the warmer weather the birth of the next offspring. Deep in the water vibrant green water lily leaves push their way upwards to the surface of the lake to catch spring sunshine.

The Fu organ associated with spring and the wood element is the Gall Bladder, the “minister of justice” and within the organism, directs the impulses of all other organs. The gall bladder is paired with the Liver. If it is the ability of the liver to plan then it is the ability of the Gall Bladder to “Decide” hence the term “Minister of Justice”

The Hart Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita
perceives that all five skandhas are empty
and is saved from all suffering and distress.

Shariputra,form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
That which is form is emptiness,
that which is emptiness form.

The same is true of feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.

Shariputra,
all dharmas are marked with emptiness;
they do not appear or disappear,
are not tainted or pure,
do not increase or decrease.

Therefore, in emptiness no form, no feelings,
perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
No eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind;
no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch,
no object of mind;
no realm of eyes
and so forth until no realm of mind consciousness.

No ignorance and also no extinction of it,
and so forth until no old age and death
and also no extinction of them.
No suffering, no origination,
no stopping, no path, no cognition,
also no attainment with nothing to attain.

The Bodhisattva depends on Prajna Paramita
and the mind is no hindrance;
without any hindrance no fears exist.
Far apart from every perverted view one dwells in Nirvana.

In the three worldsall Buddhas depend on Prajna Paramita
and attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

Therefore know that Prajna Paramita
is the great transcendent mantra,
is the great bright mantra,
is the utmost mantra,
is the supreme mantra which is able to relieve all suffering
and is true, not false.

So proclaim the Prajna Paramita mantra,
proclaim the mantra which says:
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha
gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

The Hart Sutra
The Heart Sutra is regarded as the summation of the wisdom of the Buddha. It expresses the insight attained by non-attachment and the doctrine of emptiness. The Heart Sutra is said to be the shortest and the most popular sutra in Buddhism. The Diamond Sutra in about 5000 words summarizes the six hundred volumes of the Maha Prajna Sutra, and the Heart Sutra in around 250 words summarizes the Diamond Sutra. There are many translations of the Heart Sutra and this one was for me the easiest to learn, (even though it may not be an accurate translation from the Sanskrit). There are many commentaries on the Heart Sutra, the following translation is one I found in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_Sutra)

The Heart Sutra introduces the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteśvara, who in this case is representing the faculty of prajña (wisdom). His analysis of phenomena is that there is nothing which lies outside the five aggregates of human existence (skandhas) — form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), volitions (samskārā), perceptions (saṁjñā), and consciousness (vijñāna).
Avalokiteśvara then addresses Śariputra, who in this text — as with many other Mahāyāna texts — is a representative of the Early Buddhist schools, described in many other sutras as being the Buddha's foremost disciple in wisdom. Avalokiteśvara famously states that, "form is emptiness (Śūnyatā) and emptiness is form" and declares the other skandhas to be equally empty — that is, without an independent essence. Avalokiteśvara then goes through some of the most fundamental Buddhist teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and explains that in emptiness none of these labels apply. This is traditionally interpreted as saying that Buddhist teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality — they are not reality itself — and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond dualistic description. Thus the bodhisattva, as the archetypal Mahāyāna Buddhist, relies on the perfection of wisdom, defined in the larger Perfection of Wisdom sutras to be the wisdom that perceives reality directly without conceptual attachment. This perfection of wisdom is condensed in the mantra with which the Sutra concludes.

Amongst White Clouds

On returning from my morning walk I found a package from Canada in the mail box, the DVD "Amongst White clouds" has finally arrived. Since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago, China’s remote Zhongnan Mountains have been home to recluses, enlightened Buddhist and Taoist Masters, monks and students who live in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and valleys of the Zhongnan Mountain range. "Amongst White Clouds" shows the tradition of China's forgotten Zen Buddhist hermit’s of the Zhongnan Mountains, the hardship they endure as well as the joy, humour and compassion of the everyday lives of the Buddhist monks living in the Zhongnan Mountains.

The film was inspired by the book "Road to Heaven, encounters with Chinese Hermits" by Bill Porter. Road to Heaven is a brilliant book with lots of stories about the lives of early and present day Buddhist and Taoist hermit monks, Temples in the Zhongnan mountains. The sad part about the book is the lack of references, there are a few but I would like to follow the thread of some of the stories, eg. The meeting of the 88 year old Lao-tzi with the young Confucius (p37), and an interesting link between Taoism and Buddhism “After Lao-tzu joined the immortals, he was reborn Shakyamuni…” (p63). The recorded dialogue between Bill Porter and the Buddhist and Taoist hermit monks and their life in the Chungnan Mountains makes for interesting reading

In my view the film adds extra colour to the book, but in its own right the film is fascinating.

http://www.amongstclouds.com/

Yin and Yang and the Wu-Hsing Theory

"The terms Yin, the dark and Yang, the light, denote respectively the shadowed and light side of a mountain or a river. Yang represents the south side of the mountain, because this side receives the sunlight, but it connotes the north side of the river, because the light of the river is reflected to that side. The reverse is true as regards yin. The terms are gradually extended to include the two polar forces of the universe which we may call positive and negative."
WILHELM 1967 p297-298)

Ancient Chinese philosophers and sages are thought to have collected and first written down observations of the natural world around them during the Qin and Han dynasties (221BCE and 220CE). Their collection of writings formed the basis of the Chinese classic the “I-Ching” or Book of Changes. The sages believed that everything in the universe can be described in terms of a polar combination of entities which they called “Yin” and “Yang” and the Wu-hsing or five element theory which described a clyclic process of energy transformation of five basic types of energy, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Yin and Yang Theory
Yin and Yang formed the basis of a system in which all phenomena can be described in complementary groups, a natural law of opposites. According to theory, all things and phenomena in the universe contain two polar aspects, “Yin” and “Yang” that are both seen as being complementary to each other and at the same time, in opposition to each other, that is, one cannot exist without the other. It would be impossible for us to have any concept of “day” if we had no concept of “night” to compare it with, hot cannot exist without cold, and good can not exist with out evil. Yin and Yang are therefore both interdependent, and in conflict with each other.

Just as one side of a mountain faces south and is warmed by the sun, the north remains in the shade and is cooler. Yin and Yang are not mutually exclusive, within Yin there is an element of Yang and within Yang an element of Yin. Yin and yang are usually held in balance, that is, as one increase’s, the other decreases.

The interrelationships of every thing that exists can be expressed in the form of Yin and Yang and are represented as complementary and opposite entities and maybe expressed in tabular form, two broad categories of complementary terms, the list below is only a representation of the Yin and Yang phenomena and is by no means exhaustive.

Yin / Yang
Female / Male
Dark / Light
Cold / Hot
Rest / Movement
Static / Dynamic
Moon / Sun
Earth / Heaven
North / South
West / East
Winter / Summer
Solid (Liquid) / Vapour (Gas)
Condensation / Evaporation
Contraction / Expansion
Descending / Ascending
Below / Above
Lower part / Upper part
Left / Right
Night / Day
Water / Fire
Yielding / Resistance
Soft / Hard
Passive / Aggressive
Introverted / Outgoing
Quiet / Loud
Slow / Fast
Even / Odd
Wet / Dry
Chronic / Acute

Lunar Eclipse

Whilst I was offering incense to Buddha out side in the garden at 0530 this morning I became aware at just how bright the moon was in the sky, it was casting my shadow across the garden and on to a wall. When I looked in the direction of the moon, I saw it was almost a perfect sphere under the loest branch of our neighbours cherry tree, beautiful. I then savoured its beauty, captivated by the moon and the tree and the sound of birds and started to laugh as I remembered the story of when the famous Japanese scholar Kameda Bosai paid a visit to the Zen master and poet Ryokan.

Bosai found Ryokan sitting zazen on the porch of his hut, and waited—several hours—for the monk to finish, and then Bosai and Ryokan happily talked poetry, philosophy, and writing until evening, Ryokan rose to fetch them some sake from town. Again Bosai waited several hours, then grew concerned and began to walk toward the village. When he found Ryokan, a hundred yards away, sitting under a pine tree, he exclaimed, "Ryokan! Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for hours and was afraid something had happened to you." Ryokan looked up. "Bosai, you have just come in time. Look, isn’t the moon splendid tonight?" When Bosai asked about the sake, Ryokan replied, "Oh, yes, the sake. I forgot all about it," and headed off to town.

To be distracted by life’s moments is indeed a Zen virtue, though it is often a trial for friends.

In the evening I sat out on the beach watching the Lunar eclipse...............beautiful......look, isn't the moon splended tonight......

The thief left it behind

The moon

At the window.

Ryokan

Photo: Matt Ohman, Somerset.

The Year of the Boar

Year of the Boar
1911, 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019.

Sunday 18th February 2007 is Chinese New Year and the first day of the Spring festival.

The Boar character is naturally patient and cheerful, an outgoing jovial character, honest and and patient people. They are kind and careing. Sincere, diligant and generous. Boars born 2007 (and 1947) are "Fire boars" that is they have the characteristics of the fire element and are adventourous, bold and dynamic.

Famous Boars include:
Albert Schweitzer
Fred Astaire
Maria Callas
Tennessee Williams
Arnold Scharzenegger

Wet days and Qigong ways

Saturday and it is raining outside, it seems to have been raining for ever, but I get up at the same time every morning so when my wife and the boys are asleep I go into the front room and work through the daoyin and qigong exercises before doing the 8, 16 and the BCCMA 24 posture forms.

Xu Xiangcai says “Qigong, as an art of healing and health preservation, is thought to have originated as early as four thousand years ago in the Tang Yao times as a form of dancing. Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals or Lu's History (Lu Shi Chun Qiu) records: In the beginning of the Tao Tang Tribes, the sun was often shut off by heavy clouds and it rained all the time; turbulent waters overflowed the rivers' banks. People lived a gloomy and dull life and suffered from rigidity of their joints. As a remedy dancing was recommended. From the experience of their long-term struggle with nature, the ancients gradually realized that body movements, exclamations, and various ways of breathing could help readjust certain bodily functions. For example, imitating animal movements such as climbing, looking about, and leaping was found to promote a vital flow of Qi.”

Four thousand years ago the ancient ones practiced Qigong in caves to keep healthy when the weather prevented them from going out, what is the difference now?

Taichi in Kingsbridge

Yesterday, 4th February I started the Devon Tai chi instructor and the Chengman Ching development course with Matthew Rochford and Luke Shepperd and had a truly brilliant day. The course objective is to deepen our understanding of internal Tai Chi processes, use of mind intention (yi) and issuing forces that will lead us (the practitioner), to a deeper appreciation of taichi and our inner processes, over the course of the next eleven months.

One of Chengman ching’s students, Master Haung Xiangxian was renowned for his refinement of the art. Patrick Kelly trained closely with Master Haung for 22 years and his student Luke Shepherd (who has 25 years experience) and will be leading the development group during 2007. All training is held on a Sunday, 2-5.30pm at the Spanda Studio, Harbour House, Kingsbridge.

Patrick A Kelly was born in New Zealand in 1950. He studied martial arts from childhood. While completing his BSc in pure mathematics, he began Taiji with an experienced student of Master Huang Xingxian in 1973. In 1977 he moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he studied full time in Master Huang's school. In 1979, following tradition, Master Huang accepted Patrick Kelly as his personal disciple - the only non-Chinese to ever enter Huang's inner-school. From that time Patrick Kelly travelled and taught between Asia, New Zealand, Australia and Europe establishing a school in Auckland, NZ, in 1980. Huang often visited to teach in the NZ school and obtained permanent residency for NZ in 1992 shortly before he died. In that year, at the express wish of his teacher, Patrick Kelly established a Europe wide teaching network, where 20 senior students (20+ years Taiji and 10+ years with Patrick) and 80 close students (average 10 to 15 years Taiji) teach some thousands of students through their independent schools.

From: http://www.patrickkellytaiji.com/index.html

Luke Shepherd (b.1961). is the Principal Instructor and founder of Open Palm Taiji. He is a student of Patrick Kelly and has been training Taiji since 1981. His first 15 years training were with Richard Farmer of Rising Dragon Tai Chi. Rising Dragon's teachings emphasized meditation and personal development with a strong focus on connecting Taiji ideas to every day life. Luke taught as a Rising Dragon Instructor for 5 years in Cardiff prior to moving to Devon. Between 1991-97 he periodically lived in India under the direction of Ramana Maharshi's disciple Sri HWL Poonja. In 1997 Luke met Patrick Kelly. Since that time he has trained the internal aspects of body and mind under the guidance of Patrick. He formed Open Palm Taiji to share this with others.
He divides his time between teaching taiji, his personal training and his work as a sculptor and bronze caster.

From: http://www.abcbronze.co.uk/taiji/opthome.htm

Matthew Rochford. Matthew has been practicing Tai Chi since 1991 and completed a six year senior teaching course in 2002. During that time he has learnt many Tai Chi Forms and worked with leading teacher Peter Warr and trained with Professor Li De Yin from Beijing. Working professionally as an instructor Matthew has taught in a wide variety of locations from sheltered housing projects to The Mind Body Spirit Festival. He has also appeared on TV and Radio, sharing his enthusiasm for the art. As a professional writer on Tai Chi he has been published in national magazines and his first book ‘Total Tai Chi’ (MQ Publications) was released in the UK and USA during April 2003 and was recently translated into Spanish.

From: http://www.devontaichi.co.uk/index.php

A Beautiful Day

Saturday at last but woke early all the same so spent the first hour and a half doing my daoyin, qigong, and tai chi exercises. I then had a cup of "tea Kwanyin", (Chinese green tea), and half an hour's meditation before going for a walk along the seafront. This morning the sea was flat calm the sky blue and sunny, a beautiful day and suppriseingly warm for the time of year. I came across this poem by William Henry Channing 1810-1884.

Live Simply
To live content with small means,
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich
To study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds,
to babes and sages, with open heart;
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never
To let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common
This is to be my symphony.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

There are times when I wonder how some people manage to survive with all the difficulties life has to throw at them. Over the past few months whilst I have been "off-line", I have been giving support to a number of people who's lives have been turned upside down with the sort of problems that the majority of us hope and pray will never happen to us

1. One couple's baby was born 16 weeks premature and spent its very short life in the confines of an incubator, unable to hold and feed their baby, their only contact was the view through the perspex lid.

2. A very intelligent man who is now living in political exile with his wife and daughter's but who's dream is one day to return to his native country and start his life again.

3. Another who is suffering from out and out bullying in the work place.

4. Two men in different companies suffering with stress at work. One of them is not sleeping at night and going through a relationship break down.

All these people have had problems that put mine into perspective and I realize that my problems are insignificant, the result of my own deluded mind. In truth we all suffer from time to time, our very existence is “suffering”, we do experience joy in this life, but life can't be all joy; even in the most fortunate of lives there must be suffering. In the same way that we can not have any concept of “light” without the concept of “dark”, or “hot” with out “cold”, “good” without “bad” so “joy” would be non existent without the experience of “Suffering”.

Buddhists use the Pali word “Dukkha” to describe what we in the west call suffering, (although suffering is not a direct translation of dukkha). Dukkha implies the generally unsatisfactory and imperfect nature of life. In Vol. II of The Three Basic Facts of Existence (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983) Francis Story describes Dukkha or Suffering as:

Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty.

Siddhartha Gautama Buddha realised the existence of suffering when gave his first sermon at the deer park near Benares (Varanasi), India, on the “Four Nobel Truths” and the “Nobel Eightfold Path”.

The Four Nobel Truths:

(1) that existence is suffering (dukkha);

(2) that this suffering has a cause (samudaya);

(3) that it can be suppressed (nirodha); and

(4) that there is a way (magga) to accomplish this by following the Nobel Eightfold Path, (the way out of suffering).

The Nobel Eightfold Path.
1) Right Seeing.

(2) Right Thought.

(3) Right Speech.

(4) Right Action.

(5) Right Livelihood.

(6) Right Effort

(7) Right Mindfulness.

(8) Right Contemplation.

Whilst I can try my best to follow the Nobel Eightfold Path and find my way out of suffering I find that Tai chi helps me over come the "Stress" that accompanies the suffering, it helps me by "stilling my troubled mind" by helping me to relax and put my troubles back into perspective.

Back on line

Following the recent breakdown in communications when my trusty old computor fell ill, I am now pleased to anouce that it is now fully recovered and its little bit's either tweeked or replaced and is now running with a full head of steam.

A new year and a referbished computor.

Christmas day

Its the 25th of December, Christmas day and for once I am spending good quality time with my family. I am aware that I have not made an entry since early November, but as always my practice's has to take precedent, the blog takes second place. In the new year I will be back again. So I wish you merry Christmas and a happy new year, may health, love, peace and happiness be yours throughout 2007,and together we will take up the challenge and change our lives.

Visiting Hartridge monestry

I have over the past few years visitied a numer of Buddhist temples in the UK and today I drove out to the Devon Vihara at Hartridge and had a wonderful time. It is strange to see monks in saffron going about their daily routine but the people of East Devon have grown used to seeing the monks with their begging bowels in the local towns and villages. The monks at the Devon Vihara follow the Forrest sangha tradition a tradition that can be traced to the third-century B.C.E. and Prince Ashoka, originating in India, the forest monk tradition spread to Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Sri Lanka.

As I walked through the door of the temple the monks where sat eating their mid day meal, (the only meal of the day). When the abbot saw me he said “hello, go into the kitchen and have something to eat and I will see you later”……..and I did. Everyone there was friendly, welcoming and happy.

The temple is in a remote part of East Devon at the end of a very long lane surrounded by 22 acres of woodland. The monks live in small wooden huts called “kuti’s”, and follow the teachings of the Venerable Ajahn Chah. Ajahn Chah was born on June 17, 1918 in a small village near the town of Ubon Rajathani, North-East Thailand. After finishing his basic schooling, he spent three years as a novice before returning to lay life to help his parents on the farm. At the age of twenty, however, he decided to resume monastic life, and on April 26, 1939 he received upasampada (bhikkhu ordination). For further information please visit:

http://www.forestsangha.org/

The Serial Bully and his victim

Monday afternoon and I have just arrived home from listening to one man's story. An intelligent hard working man who has suffered from the attention of a bully at his place of work. I have no intention of breaching confidentially or compromising my position and all that I believe, but the opportunity now exists for me to bring the topic of bullying to the fore. Over the years I have spent a considerable amount of time counselling the victims of bullying and helping them over come their stress. The question of “why” always comes to mind, “why does one person bully another” and “why do companies allow it to happen in the first place?".

The Scene.
The company is a medium to large company with European connections, the bully in question is I believe a serial bully, and his target, a quiet intelligent male who could easily be you or me or some one we know.

The Bully.
The profile I am building in my mind of this serial bully from the evidence shown to me is one of a man who has a Jekyll and Hyde character, vicious and vindictive one moment perfectly charming and innocent the next. I do not underestimate this bully’s capacity to deceive, he is plausible and convincing when his superiors or others are present but his charm is used to deceive and cover for lack of empathy. This bully holds deep prejudices against the opposite gender, people of a different sexual orientation, other cultures, religious or ethnic background.

He is self-opinionated, arrogant and has a superior sense of entitlement and sense of being invulnerable or un-touchable. “I am the second most powerful man in this company” (even though his position is low in the company). He has a compulsive need to control everyone and everything his subordinates do, “If you want to get on in this company you better do as I say”. He is manipulative and undermines and destroys anyone who the he perceives to be an adversary or a potential threat. It is almost as though he has a need to find a weakness in someone then expose and exploit that weakness until his victim leaves the company, normally through illness and depression. The bully then goes to ground until he thinks he is safe, then, finds his next target.

The Victim.
This victim is competent and popular but vulnerable. This victim is intelligent, honest, trustworthy, and conscientious middle aged man who is sensitive, helpful, always willing to share knowledge and experience. He is tolerant, forgiving and inclined to think well of others. He has high moral standards and a strong well-defined set of values. He has low assertiveness and a strong need to feel valued. He is quick to apologize for anything he “might” have done wrong, he is a perfectionist with a strong sense of fair play and has a tendency to keep anger bottled up rather than express it.

In this respect our “victim” is a really nice man who the company would do well to employ.

The Company.
The company is a medium sized British company with expanding European connections. It has a well manned human resource department who are aware of the numerous complaints regarding this bully, but the department has been totally ineffective in dealing with this issue. The company does have a policy regarding bullying, discrimination and harassment, which is intended to protect both employees and the employer, but has failed dismally to protect the victims and in one case even supported the bully when he cleverly switched from being the persecutor to being a victim.

When the companies Human Resource Department writes off a bullying incident as a "personality clash" and sweeps the incident under the carpet, the company and individual managers are then wide open to litigation. A personality clash can only occur between two people of equal rank, status or power. To take the attitude “We don’t like him but he gets the job done” is to ignore the cost to the company in:
1. Low morale,
2. Poor productivity,
3. Poor customer service,
4. High sickness absence,
5. High staff turnover,
6. Frequent grievance,
7. Legal action.

In July this year, judges in the House of Lords decided that former health service worker William Majrowski could use the "Protection from Harassment Act 1997" to sue his former employer for workplace bullying. The Act was introduced to deal with stalkers but has been so loosely drafted that its remit has widened as clever lawyers has sought to put it to new uses. This latest development has important implications for employers.

Even if a company can show that they did all that could have reasonably been expected to protect an employee from harassment, the company will still be liable.

I expect that this law will be challenged in the due course of time, but at present an employer will held responsible if work place bullying is not controlled.

Conclusion?
The failure to tackle bullying head on or denying of the existence of the serial bully with in the company not only serves to discredit the target or victim, but invites the company manager’s behavior to match the profile of the bully. If the pattern of daily, trivial nitpicking and criticism, isolation and exclusion persists the individuals morale, resistance, and immune system weakens resulting in sickness, absence from work and depression.

Should the target then end his life as a result of negligence on the part of the company or it's failure to tackle bullying, then charges of Manslaughter or Corporate Manslaughter can be brought against the company and its managers.

I am only interested in taking the seagulls eye view of the incident within this company and to offer confidential emotional support to those who look for it and this includes the bully, because I believe he may have been a target or victim, at a young age, and the script he learnt then he is putting into practice now.

How long does it take to become enlightened?

There is no set time. The qualities of wisdom and compassion that we uncover on the path exist within all of us right now. One can even say they are our primordial nature. What we are trying to do on the path is to free ourselves from identifying with that which is false, such as the notion that our body is our self, or that our distorted thoughts and emotions are our self. How long that will take us depends upon how much effort we put into following the spiritual path, but enlightenment is in a sense available to us right now. Of course, one needs to find an effective method for removing the obscurations. Having found the skilful teachers who can impart these to us, we then need to be fully committed to using them. It is said that there are beings, like the dzok chen master Garab Dorje, for whom enlightenment follows instantaneously upon their hearing one line of the teaching. However, such beings are as rare as stars seen in the daytime. The vast majority of us need to follow a graduated and systematic path. However, if we follow the most powerful of Buddha’s teachings, the vajrayana, then it is possible to become enlightened in this very life. Even if that is not possible, by sincerely setting out on the spiritual path in this life we should be confident that in successive lives we will carry on with this upward movement towards enlightenment.

by Lama Jampa Thaye

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.
Dogen

Winds of Change.

As a young boy walking down to the fish quay I would often stop and read the poem carved on the door knocker of a fisherman's cottage over looking the harbour, it read...

The wind blows east,
The wind blows west,
It's the self same wind that blows.
But it's the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tell which way to go!

In the lines, "It's the set of the sails and not the gales that tell which way to go" we learn that even though the journey may be difficult, it is still possible for the ship to sail against the wind and reach its destination. So it is we mortals, sometimes our life is like a ship on a difficult passage, the winds of change conspire against us and we have to change tack again and again beating to windward to make headway.

Yesterday I spoke to two different men, both about fifty, their stories where completely different but the analogy of the sailing ship is useful in understanding both problems. One man is working his way through bereavement, the other, a man who having gained a BSc(hons) then a masters degree has lost his will to continue. For both people the wind has changed and is blowing against them.

The numbness, anger and sadness experienced after the death of a loved one and reactions such as bouts of silence, sleeplessness, loss of energy, loss of appetite, withdrawal, and sudden uncontrollable tears, are a normal part of the grieving process until the pain starts to subside and we see life in a more positive light. Slowly time heals, we begin to accept our loss and we begin to carry on with our life. Some feelings do not go away, we just learn to live with them, we learn to cope. When there are multiple stress factors in our life, and the death of a loved one occurs, bereavement then becomes all the more difficult to cope with. We are then like a ship beating to windward in a storm with torn sails.

The second man lost his job twelve years ago through illness and having decided on a new career direction. His initial positive motivation took him to university to study for a degree, his success there led him on to study for one year masters degree which he has just completed. But now the winds have changed for him, he is no longer studying, he has not got the employment he thought he would get with his new degree. He thinks this is because of his age and now he is at home, depressed, angry with the world, not sure if he made the right decisions, not sure what to do next. This man is like a ship in a storm sailing on to a lee shore. I do not use the metaphor lightly I have been there both at sea and in life.

But it's the set of the sails and not the gales that tell which way to go!

There is a way we can change the predicament we find ourselves in, we can change tack and beat our way to windward, round the headland and shelter in calmer waters. What we need is to give our selves time, find the will to change and go for it.

Breathe deep, take up the challenge, change your life.

"Waking up this morning, I smile,
Twenty-four brand new hours
are before me.
I vow to live fully in each
Moment
And to look at all beings with
Eyes of Compassion"

- A prayer by Thich Nhat Hanh

A Day of Tai Chi

Had a brilliant day today practicing Tai Chi at Ruggadon Farm in the converted barn, it is light, airy and surrounded by beautiful countryside. The BCCMA 24 Posture form is a nice compact form and particularly good in confined spaces, I am able to practice the twenty four postures at home in our front room. We also covered the Metal and water elements of the wu-hsing or "five elements" and worked our way through the 18 posture Qigong form.

The B.C.C.M.A 24 Posture Form Yang Style
1 Open Posture (Part the Horses Main)
2 Grasp the Birds Tail
3 Single Whip
4 Raise Hands Posture
5 White Crane Spreads its Wings
6 Brush Knee Twist Step
7 Strum the Lute
8 Repulse the Monkey
9 Slant Flying
10 Wave Hands Like the Clouds
11 Single Whip
12 High Pat on Horse
13 Right Heel Kick
14 Double Strike
15 Left Heel Kick
16 Snake Creeps Down
17 Golden Cockerel Stands on One Leg
18 Fair Lady Works the Shuttles
19 Needle at the Bottom of the Sea
20 Fan Thru the Back
21 Turn Parry and Punch
22 Draw Back Palm Under Elbow and Push Forward
23 Turn with Cross Arm Posture
24 Close