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After yesterday I didn't know what to expect today. Today was just a
regular day, but there was no stress about anything all day. Like
yesterday, but no numbness. No feeling that I was already in a
meditative state, just a balanced feeling... relaxed, no stress and
an easy day.
Even when my backpack fell onto the street from my motorbike, I had
no stress about it. It was raining and I'd left my backpack on the
motorcycle while I went in and talked to a friend at her business.
As we were talking she noticed the pack had fallen onto the street,
close to the curb. It had rained before - and yet I didn't see any
streams of rain... Sadly the streaming water was hidden by the
curb - out of my view!
I had put a waterproof bag on top of my backpack - and it's quite a
good rain-cover. It has an elastic drawstring that enables me to
make it really tight - so the pack is almost completely surrounded
with it.
But not quite.
I looked at the pack and said, oh, "mai pen rai" in Thai - meaning,
never mind - no worries, it's fine. And I kept on talking to her...
Well, after 20 minutes when I was leaving as I came up to the
motorcycle I saw that my pack was sitting in a stream of water close
to the curb. The pack had blocked the water so it built up and
poured into the backpack!
Hmm. Still - no stress in my mind at all. I knew my notebook
computer was wrapped in another waterproof diving bag - that has a
slight hole in it - but, usually is ok. My camera - I thought, was
ruined - but it was only $133 over 2 years ago and I had dropped it
off the motorcycle at 35 mph before - it wasn't doing well anyway.
Then I thought about - phone. Jeez. That was another $166 and wasn't
working so well either... At the worst - the camera and phone were
soaked through. Maybe the phone would work after drying out. The
camera - was likely lost. I had no important documents in the bag -
so - there wasn't that much to worry about.
As I picked up the pack - it was VERY heavy. Darn. The water soaked
through and pooled in the bottom. I drained it as best I could.
Checked the laptop - it was fine. I didn't even look at phone and
camera - no matter I thought. I checked it later when I found a
place to eat. They were both wet. I removed the batteries and dried
them off as best I could.
I ate in mindfulness of the great food.
I wasn't attached to the things that might have been ruined by the
rain water. It was a really nice feeling to not really care what had
become of the things. Not that I can afford to buy a new phone or a
new camera - I'd have just done without if they were ruined. But, it
just didn't matter in the big picture.
End Result: Phone display is pretty garbled - but it's functional.
Camera works fine. Notebook - fine. The only thing that was really
ruined beyond fixing was this paper on which I wrote something I was
considering focusing on during periods of calm... and during
meditation after coming out of Jhana...
What did it say before?
impermanence Anicca
suffering
dukkha
not self
anatta
I'm not sure what line 4 says - except "mind" (citta) and "Mental
objects" are clear enough to read.
Is that great or what? It's as if it's reflecting reality...
Impermanence - yeah, the paper is impermanent. What I thought might
be important, these phrases, are not important at all.
Suffering - there would have been suffering if I cared about this
paper and what it said, what it stood for. The Buddhists think this
is so important - to focus on these things during a focused,
concentrated mind...
Not self - I wasn't upset or even phased by anything getting wet in
the bag - "I" wasn't really there in a big way... not self, no
self...
Strange but this is the only thing in the whole back that was
ruined. The other thing that had the most water was a Buddhist
amulet give to me by the abbot of a temple here after we gave a
donation in a friend's name. A friend we met online as a result of
this site sent us money to donate for him because he couldn't make
it here. We did it and the abbot gave us this nice gold amulet for
him. I kept it in the bag because I didn't want it stolen from the
room and need to replace it. When I found that amulet at the bottom
of my bag it was full of water! The amulet was in perfect shape - as
it's all metal - but, it was full of clear water... Better take a
photo of that too so you get the idea...
It's surrounded by a plastic or glass cover - so, when the water
came in, it stayed. It was like looking at the monk (Ajarn Jumnien)
in a fishbowl.
Well, the water emptied - and the amulet appears fine.
It's funny to me that these are the two things - out of 100 in my
backpack that got the most water.
Anyway, it rained the entire day and all night last night. Maybe
will get to do some exercise if it stays a little bit dry.
Sawasdee krup...
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