The Warrior and The Cat

How often I am asked the same questions that will be asked of almost everybody who produces artwork. I am sure all who read this know exactly what I mean.

“How do you manage to do that?” usually with the added comment, “I wish I had such talent.” I always feel so humbled when this is said to me, because I know the truth, I have no more talent than those who ask the question.

Then there is the question, “How long did it take you to do that?” This question I always find almost impossible to answer. Impossible because I am aware if I only talk about the time I take to put paint onto a canvas it may well trivialise the finished product. But the time the painting has been developing in the inner reaches of the mind are almost impossible to calculate.

Then there is the question that always comes, when the finished product is an abstract. “Where do you get the ideas to paint those?”

The answer to that question is best answered with the little tale of the warrior and the cat.

The great warrior was a marvellous swordsman. One night he came home, he saw a rat near his bed. The rat looked at him ferociously.

He took his sword and tried to kill the rat, but all he managed to do was keep missing it and eventually broke his sword. This is no ordinary rat, he thought.

He spoke to his wife. She looked at him and said, “You fool, you can never kill a rat with a sword bring in the cat.” The cat was a highly trained and famous rat-catching cat.

Try as hard as she could the cat failed to catch the rat. The warrior said, “This is too much.” He then visited the king who had the best reputation for catching rats. A highly skilled cat. The king’s cat also failed to catch the rat.

The king’s cat said, “What you need is just a plain ordinary cat, not famous cats.”

The warrior asked, “What can an ordinary cat do that you cannot do?”

The king’s cat said, “Just try. I know this; she does not know a thing. She sleeps all day but she is very mysterious. She knows nothing about the art of rat catching, the technique, or the philosophy. She is just a plain cat, but other cats are very afraid of her.”

The warrior was not hopeful, but the cat was brought.

She came, and without any skill, caught the rat and brought it out. All the cats gathered together and asked her, “What art?”

I am a cat and a cat is supposed to catch a rat. That is what I do.

This blog is linked to my other. Structured Thinking (Or As Close As I Can Get)

Things Are Not Always As They Seem.

The Categorical Imperative

Much of our news broadcasts and newsprint is taken up at present with one story. A well known DJ who was famous not only for the TV shows he presented but also for the seemingly good works he did. He raised millions for charity and offered his personal service in many ways. He was knighted, which put him up there among the “elite” of society.

It now turns out that all the while he was also using his fame to abuse young girls.

I want to say no more about that here, because that is not the purpose of my blog. I speak of it merely as a reminder that not all things are always as they seem. In truth so often if something seems to good to be true, you can be sure it is just that.

This reminds me of the tale of the two travelling angels. One evening they stopped at the home of a wealthy family. The family treated them rudely and refused to let them stay in the guest room, instead they had to sleep  in a cold basement.

As they made their beds on the hard cold floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it.

When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “things are not always as they seem.”

The next night the two came to rest in the home of a poor family, who treated them with the greatest of respect. After sharing what little food they had the angels were allowed to sleep in their bed, where they had a comfortable night.”Ehen we stayed in the basement I noticed there was loads of gold hidden in that holein the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share, I sealed the hole so he would never find it.”

The next morning they found the couple in tears. Their only cow lay dead in the field.

As the two journeyed on it became obvious the younger one was angry. Eventually she said, “Why did you let that happen?” “The first man had everything , and yet you still helped him. The second family had little but were willing to share, and you let their cow die.”

“Things are not always as they seem,” said the older. When we stayed in the basement I noticed there was loads of gold hidden in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share, I sealed the hole so he would never find it.”

“Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I persuaded her to take the cow instead.

Things are not always as they seem.

This blog is linked to my other. The categorical Imperative.

What You really Have.

Structured Thinking ( Or As Close As I Can Get)

On more than one occasion in the last two weeks or so people have commented on my being quieter than I am normally. Please do not think I am a loud person, but I can be very much a part of a conversation even though I have this difficult voice of mine. In the opinion of many friends I have been a man of few words.

I suppose I am still feeling the effects of an afternoon I spent during my last venture in the mountains. It was just another afternoon. I had gone running as usual in the morning and now I was heading out for an afternoon walk. What made this walk different was my finding a Buddhist Monastery I had not expected to find, not even knowing of its existence.

There it was just off the road. It was called, “Paradise,” a name that seemed so appropriate, but not a name given by the Buddhists. This place had been a retreat for coal miners and families before becoming what it was now. It was they who had named it. 

The Buddhist had though, built a magnificent temple in the grounds. I entered, having taken off my boots and sat in the calm and peace. I just sat and thought, realising how much I had missed just such moments. Before I was aware I had been there for over two hours.

One of things I thought of that afternoon was the tale of the wise woman.

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveller who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveller saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveller left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.

But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. 

"I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."

Sometimes it's not the wealth you have but what's inside you that others need.

This blog is linked to my other. Structured Thinking

A Few Things I Should Know.

Poppy Abstract.

I am always in a great rush. I have been all of my life a person who burns energy like it was going out of fashion. I was giving this some thought this morning as I began to prepare myself for a week of running in the mountains. I love these days but I am also conscious of the fact of the raised level of danger from the normal daily running I do here at home.

I run in the mornings and walk in the afternoon/early evening then fall into bed exhausted to be ready for the next day.  I became very aware of this after reading the blog of Sherry, Conservatively Bohemian.  So I sat down and gave thought, here is the bones of my time of thinking, of what stops me being all I want to be and the artist I dream of being.

I think the first thing is this rushing and trying to fit things into something else I am doing. I plan a walk and set out. During the course of the walk I take out my watercolour box and do a painting, but all the time my mind is on the clock and the time I have yet to walk. The end result is a bad walk and a bad painting. I need to learn that when walking I am walking and when painting I am painting. I need to schedule if I want to do both.

Next. If we continue to repeat a story in our head, we eventually believe that story and embrace it – whether it empowers us or not.  So the question is: Does my story empower me?  Do I place my mistakes in my mind; where their weight may crush my current potential.  Instead, I must place them under my feet and use them as a platform to view the horizon.  I must remember, all things are difficult before they are easy.  What matters the most is what I am starting to do now.

I also need to stop  being  s hard on myself.  There are plenty of people willing to do that for me. I need to do my  best and surrender the rest.  Tell my self, “I am doing the best I can with what I have in this moment.  And that is all I can expect of anyone, including me.”  I need to be proud of everything that I do, even the  mistakes.  Because even mistakes mean I am trying.

Lastly; stop waiting for tomorrow; I will never get today back.  It doesn’t matter what I’ve done in the past.  It doesn’t matter how low or unworthy I feel right now.  The simple fact is that I am alive and that makes me worthy.  Life is too short for excuses.   I have to; Stop settling.  Stop procrastinating.  Start today by taking one courageous step forward.  If I am not sure exactly which way to go, it is always wise to follow my heart.

This blog is linked to my blog  Poppy Abstract

A Drop of Water.

Floral Abstract.

We have just taken delivery of a further two bins in our armoury of rubbish (garbage) disposal system. What used to the  bin we used for paper and cardboard has now become the landfill bin, half the size of the original landfill bin. We have been given a new bin for plastic and metal cans. The bin we had for garden refuse now takes food waste from the kitchen and we have a little kitchen waste bin in which to collect it.

If nothing else this new regime has caused much discussion. “What are we gonna dae wi ah thae bins.” I do not have time to sort out all that stuff before putting it in separate bins.” “When that landfill bin is full I will just take the rest down the road and dump it.” These are some of the negative responses. I have tried to embrace the new regime

 and do as best I can to keep the waste going to landfill sites to a minimum.

Sometimes the debating gets to a wider level. Which country per person produces the most waste? If every country created as much how long could we survive?

As part of my teaching material and examination papers I prepared for Scottish schools, the environment was one of my topics, so I am loving the raised interest in the whole subject.

Here is an interesting thought for all those who say they do not care, or have given it little thought. Those who say the planet will survive. I am 100% sure the planet will survive, it always has. But it has evolved in its survival and if we continue to act as we do in our concern for it, it may survive but by leaving humanity out of the process.

A Zen master named Gisan asked a young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath.

The student brought the water and, after cooling the bath, threw on to the ground the little that was left over.

“You dunce!” the master scolded him. “Why didn’t you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple?”

The young student attained Zen in that instant. He changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.

We who paint because we are inspired by the beauty of nature should hold our concern for the planet like a feather in the palm of our hands.

This is the way of Tao.

This blog is linked to my other. Floral Abstract.