ORMEN LANGE

“The ship was both long and broad and high-sided, and strongly timbered. (..) The ship was a dragon, built after the one the king had captured in Halogaland; but this ship was far larger, and more carefully put together in all her parts. The king called this ship the long Serpent, and the other the Short Serpent. The Long Serpent had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and the arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships. This ship was the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway.” (The saga of Olaf Tryggvasons).

Stillness

So after an evening of time spent in "stillness" I thought I'd do a little looking into the use of "stillness" as part of the meditative process. I wanted something to relate to the photo of ice I took this morning. I keyword searched, "stillness, Buddha," and quickly found a free book, "The Peaceful Stillness of the Silent Mind" I am very ignorant of Buddhism so decided to research the author before reading it.

Here is what I learned, "Lama Yeshe was born near the Tibetan town of Tolung Dechen, but was sent to Sera Monastery in Lhasa at the age of six. He received full ordination at the age of 28 from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche. Jeffrey Paine reports that Lama Yeshe deliberately refused the geshe degree, despite having studied for it:

Many years later, when pressed why he had shunned this prestigious degree, he would laugh: 'And be Geshe Yeshe?'

Sera Monastery did award him an honorary geshe degree in the early 80s. He also used to joke that he was a Tibetan hippie: 'I dropped out!' "

I will be reading it.

#stillness