I write this from the “annex” at redmeds parent’s house. Because of additional family members staying tonight, we’ve been given the pop-top camper for the evening. Camping! Yay! We even saw some local wildlife on the way in – sadly, said local wildlife was a LARGE skunk. Booo! No skunks are needed here.
At the teaching, we went through the entire second volume this morning. Admittedly, this one covers some fairly formulaic stuff, rattling off the six perfections, with various suggested practices for increasing altruism, generosity, patience, ethical discipline, and so on. However, even His Holiness admitted that we had, perhaps, moved a bit fast. The afternoon was covered by a public address to which we failed to get tickets.
In fact, here’s video of the public talk. I haven’t watched it, but I’m sure it’s worthwhile.
He was in a feisty mood today, cracking jokes and making merry. At one point he was citing from another text and mentioned that said text would provide great value to many people if it were translated into english. He thought that perhaps the professors (who accomplished the translation from which we’re reading now) might take a crack at that. Of course, the translation crew spent 9 years on the current text, and grew slightly pale (they’re all up at the front of the room) at the suggestion. Then he said that they should be careful, since “even my head spins a little when I read this other text.” He then told a story of the teacher who composed that text, who wound up driving his students away for several years – he was so absorbed and grouchy with his work. “So be careful. Take a big rest first.”
Spent the evening listening to redmeds grandfather tell war stories about building runways on small islands in the Pacific during World War 2.
And tomorrow: A whole day on “the perfection of wisdom.”
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