Back from the trip to the north of England and Scotland. Monday now, fine day. Plenty of sun an' light. Left Thurs an' came back Sun. Lots of drivin' but that was cool. I like drivin'. Well, most of the time. London to Newcastle on the Thurs took about five hours or so, maybe more I can't remember right now. Overcast day and a cold wind, that is what I do remember. Grey, grey, skunk grey, March grey, making you want to cry out for da Springtime.
Snapshot memories -
Marriott in Newcastle was good. Managed a swim in the morning, then a sauna and a nice cold plunge which was not easy at all. Kinda like dipping ya knob in the Arctic. It was pretty damn cold and it was as much as I could do to have the guts to follow it through...decidedly cold.
Trip Newcastle to Eskdalemuir... going along the line of Hadrian's Wall east to west. Stopped off at a desolate place in the middle of nowhere to view the remains of a Mithraic temple built by Roman soldiers around 1800 years ago. Glad I saw it. Been to the sight of a Mithras temple in London where there is now the church St Stephen's on Walbrook built by Christopher Wren in the 17th century. And an amazing building that one is as well. This temple up by Hadrian's Wall was small, a replication of the original cave in which Mithras slayed the bull. Mithras. God of light. Originated from Persia which the Romans got to in the years BC and they must have brought the cult back with them. Always popular with Roman soldiers. Mithras, god of light.
Newcastle is a good town to pay a visit to out of the blue. Toon. Saw my old Aunty Mary and Uncle Tom. In fact they are me pa's aunty and uncle, Mary being the sister of me pa's old ma who died over 10 years ago now. Closer to 15 in fact. Aunty Mary and Uncle Tom. Names I have been familiar the whole of my boogerin' life. Both of them well into their 80s now. Their daughter Catherine lives next door to them with her husband Roger. Roger the Dodge. Good to see them. Me and Tamdin were glad we made the trip. So hospitable. Really is kinda humbling to be served by people in their 80s. They made so much effort. Cooked us a meal, a three courser. For them it must have been a lot of trouble and expense... I take my hat off to the love they showed to us. I salute them. Yeah, glad we did it. Never know what might happen. People get old, then they go into the Valley and it is too late, they are gone. This is a trip we have been saying we would do for years and years but never got round to do it. But now we have and it is good that it is done.
Surprising sometimes. Family. Tom and Mary's daughter, Catherine, has always been looked down upon by the rest of the family because they all think she is totally thick. Seriously looked down upon. Well she is a bit thick there aint no doubt about that but certainly she is not totally thick, no, far from it. And she is a good daughter, always there on hand to help her aged parents. The family think the same about The Dodge as well. Me ma an' pa look upon him with disdain, if not contempt. They think he does nothing. But The Dodge isn't thick and he isn't lazy at all, in fact The Dodge is a dark horse who has his own standards to live up to.
He knows what he likes and as we popped in to see them for a drink before the meal with Mary and Tom since they only live next door it was clear that he pursues things to a fair level of excellence. There are three things that The Dodge is into, in fact there are probably more things but the three things which I saw when we were there were his garden lawn which is immaculate, his fish of which he has many both in a tropical tank and in a pond in the garden and his home entertainment system. The thing about these hobbies of The Dodge is that he pursues them to the point of achieving something that you have to step back and take your hat off to him to show respect. Yeah, that was the thing I realised about The Dodge. He has his hobbies and he follows them through. He sets himself standards and from what I could make out they were pretty high ones, and he knew when he was falling short.
Comin' in from the cold... The wild, wild border country of Northumberland. Headin' into the West on a Friday afternoon. Shafts of sun on the horizon. Western sunlight, but above our heads a thick an' cloudy sky. Cold windy day. Really quite tremendous. Could have spent hours up there. All must have been fiercely contested lands at some point in time, way back when. Well at many points in time in fact, many way back whens. The Borders. England and Scotland. Wild tribes coming down an' raiding from out of the North. Rape and pillage. Must have been all too common. Both sides of the border. More often then not coming down rather than going up. No wonder Hadrian built the wall. Must have looked good when it was up and maintained. Lots of Roman soldiers. Before it began to crumble to pieces a couple of hundred years later when they all left town. Left the country. 400 AD. Something like that.
That part of the world has had this kind of thing happen for many centuries. Spankings. Guess if you went back just 300 or 400 years then it would be a pretty damn dangerous place to be. In the nature of the place. Wild and unprotected. Out on your own out there. Northumberland. North of the Humber land. But what magnificent scenery! Hills ranging ragged, cutting shapes beneath the sky makin' you sense the bigger picture. Mass accumulation of dreams. Centuries of people ridin' through the land as fast as they can, wanting to making it through to the other side without gettin' their asses whipped.
Love the land. Love the drive up the A7 to Langholm late afternoon early Spring, light stretching out for the first time in the year. Beautiful colours. Landscapes to dream by as we slide past in the motor. Place where we were headed to in Eskdalemuir was Samye Ling a Tibetan Buddhist centre that has been there for exactly 40 years.
Yeah, it was 1967 when two Tibetan lamas in their early 20s walked outta the mist and took camp there. Since then the place has steadily grown into what can only be described as a great achievement. A solid achievement, just like someone reached down from the sky and plucked a temple from outta the wild an' desolate lands of Tibet and put it down in a remote Scottish valley. Yeah, it really is like that. All under the direction of Akong Rinpoche. Sometimes difficult to appreciate just how many things it is possible to do with one life. Just how many things he has done with his life. He is a Tibetan lama and that circumstance alone marks him out from others, so many others, and when you study all the works he has initiated you realise just how much he has set in motion, how many peoples lives he has improved for the better, how many people he has switched on. It is powerful karma for an individual to have and only a true master would be able to wear it on their shoulders...
Love to think that one day we would move up there. Build a cottage on some land, go to the temple day in day out an' meditate meditate meditate. That is a dream, an' a good one. But it won't come true...
Thing is Samye Ling is so far away when you're down and livin' in the city. So far away. London is crowds, traffic, intensity, the lurking feelin' that you living in times close to the end of the world... Dunno why it gives that kinda feelin' , maybe it is the size of the place, maybe something in the air. The place it holds on the river, gateway to the universe. Anyway, back here in Woodford now and Samye Ling is way up there somewhere in another reality.
Changed my way of thinkin' for a short while, made me look at all this stuff I do on Ghost Eternal as totally irrelevant, and compared with what could be done with my life, a complete waste of time. But now I am back and settled after a few days what I do here seems necessary again, well, think it is necessary in regard to it being something I do that kinda keeps me happy and on the right track. By an' large it doesn't let the negativity seep through, stops a complaining kinda mentality from takin' over, an' that is important. Too much negativity around as it is, easy to run things down. The writin' might be weird at times, a wee bit out of kilter Jimmy, but it is a good outlet for me and as far as the world of Ghost Eternal is concerned that is all that counts.
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