Nightfall

It reached 94 degrees today. The clay soil is rock hard and the grasses have very little moisture in them. The dandelions and blackberries continue to grow and the later are putting out their sweetened fruit. Some sweet corn was picked tonight... delicious right off the stalk.

It is a very comfortable temperature, as the last light of the day seeps away. A planet shines brightly in the SE skies, Jupiter/Venus? The crickets call out their incantation to the cool evening. Two years ago I was staying on Lamma Island in Hong Kong. The crickets rubbed/chirped their music quite loudly. As a matter of fact, in most places that I have traveled these members of the Gryllidae family are present. We all are under the same sky, breathe the same air, dream similar dreams. We also share the presence of insects like these crickets.

This afternoon I watched a grasshopper walk across our deck. It was missing one of its rear legs. These are the ones they use for jumping. It would walk normally and then periodically list to the side. Was it attacked by a snake? Born without one leg? More mysteries of life. There are a multitude of moths, butterflies, gnats, mosquitoes, bees, wasps, earwigs, pill bugs... and many more. This land is filled with life.

Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche was born in 1930's Tibet. Since the part of Tibet he lived in was so high, there was very little variety in their diet. It basically consisted of meat and barley, plus the ever present butter tea. It was reported that he once said that they used to feel sorry for the lowlanders who had to eat all those plants and kill all those animals. Where the people of Eastern Tibet might have to kill a single animal to eat, the people who farmed had to kill worms, insects, small mammals to eat from their farms.

It is an interesting perspective. We have a way of dismissing the small creatures of the animal kingdom in favor of the larger animals. It is a conundrum if one is a vegetarian. The Jains, a religous sect in India, prescribe a path of non-violence toward all living beings. There are some who refuse to go out at night so they don't accidentally kill a creature and they might wear a mask around their mouth so they don't accidentally breathe in an insect.

There are those who think of such paths as "crazy" "extreme". I wonder who is crazy and extremist: such people as the Jains or those who consume huge amounts of resources. Is it crazier to live one's life focused on non-harming or to be ignorant of the harm one does toward others? I tend to think the view of acquiring as much capital and resources as possible is the crazier lifestyle.

One of the more difficult choices about living out here was the distance from town. I was looking forward to living in Corvallis and getting around town on bike and bus. It is very gratifying being out here, the land is beautiful and we are working hard to be good stewards of the land. There are trade-offs in this life and one of those is traveling out here.

One of those ways of being better stewards is to minimize our travel. One of the spiritual practices is to stay put. Going many places and doing a lot can be an addiction and one that is very hard to break. I'm used to traveling the world, seeing many people and things. Yet, what does it really bring us in the end? Travel helps us understand each other better. However, there comes a point where travel is another commodity; another thing to acquire.

It is a lesson to watch a grasshopper walk across the deck or a moth cling to the wall. This is a place where one can watch the grass grow (and wither in the heat). It is a place where one can sit and feel the cool of morning turn to the heat of afternoon, then feel the cool breath of night time. It is the breath of the earth as it spreads around the planet. May your path be aided by that cool breeze.