Little Things That Make You Smile 6: Nowhere To Go But Up

[Zen Monkey]

The mountain is the mountain
And the Way is the same as of old.
Verily what has changed Is my own heart

This lovely poem shines most brilliantly when you know the events leading to its creation The Zen Buddhist monk who wrote it was once a samurai knight. As you may know, samurais live by a very strict code and are bound by duty. At some point the samurai in this story was drawn towards Buddhism and eventually turned his back on the samurai life to join a Buddhist monastery atop a mountain. Twenty years later, whilst the monk was on pilgrimage, an old Samurai recognises him and spits in the monk's face for deserting his duty. The monk wipes the spit from his face and carries on walking - in this instance he realises that years ago (when he was a samurai) he would have drawn his sword and killed anyone for spitting in his face. And so to express his wonder at the change his Zen training had wrought, he turned to the mountain atop which the monastery where he trained was, bowed, and wrote the poem:

The mountain is the mountain
And the Way is the same as of old.
Verily what has changed Is my own heart

Beautiful.

[Zen Monkey]

Made some homemade fudge yesterday using a traditional recipe. Real grainy and textured. So much cheaper than the stuff in the shops and ten times tastier. Delicious.

[Zaki]

Make sure you pack it well.

[Zen Monkey]

Does it spoil easily?

[dataDave]

Just landed in Los Angeles. Will be here for a month looking after my friend's West Hollywood apartment for him while he's honeymooning. I've wanted to come here for years.

[Anpanman]

Had an email from the lottery we had won!

[fishbowlhead]

Took all the carpets out the new house, found newspaper from 1963 about Ivanov & cristeine something in a big scandal, framed that cause it’s cool.

Best bit though.

Solid oak boards though the whole house just waiting to be discovered under that nasty old carpet.

HELL YES

[Zaki]

Had an email from the lottery we had won!

£2.80?

[teddymeow]

Took all the carpets out the new house, found newspaper from 1963 about Ivanov & cristeine something in a big scandal, framed that cause it’s cool.

Best bit though.

Solid oak boards though the whole house just waiting to be discovered under that nasty old carpet.

HELL YES

The Profumo Affair

This?

[fishbowlhead]

The Profumo Affair

This?

Same woman but a Russian diplomat. Ivonov something.

[Anpanman]

£2.80?

Yes you get an email when you win anything, was the EuroMillions whilst they have massive jackpots the lowest winnings are much lower than our own lottery.

[fishbowlhead]

The Profumo Affair

This?

Oh it was all part of the Profumo affair.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Ivanov_(spy)

[prinnysquad]

I’ve been tracking the progress of [MENTION=9865]Colin[/MENTION]’s beer shop (Caledonian Craft Beer Merchant) with keen interest, since he appears to have stolen one of my life’s ambitions and made it his own. It’s certainly consumed a lot of his time and energy leading up to yesterday’s opening day. Awesomely, he’s had a cracking couple of days. He asked me to pop on and say hi. The shop looks terrific! Git.

[fuse]

I've been following that on Twitter also! Stoked that it's off to a great start - couldn't be happier for him.

[charlesr]

I’ve been tracking the progress of [MENTION=9865]Colin[/MENTION]’s beer shop (Caledonian Craft Beer Merchant) with keen interest, since he appears to have stolen one of my life’s ambitions and made it his own. It’s certainly consumed a lot of his time and energy leading up to yesterday’s opening day. Awesomely, he’s had a cracking couple of days. He asked me to pop on and say hi. The shop looks terrific! Git.

Fantastic! Congrats [MENTION=9865]Colin[/MENTION]