Thursday

10:00 a.m.
My wonderful Thursday disappears at one o clock when I have to do things for other people. I hate that!

The first meditation of the day was great!!

Every now and again, the "buddha boy" comes to mind. The Jim Morrison of the Juju! He's inspirational, so he is. Anyway, at the start of most of the first of the day meditations, I try to visualise a list of gurus, built up over the years. When I told the lama this when I was asking him to by my guru, he rubbed his forefinger against his breast bone and said: Concentrate on me. So I do, but I go through the other ones as well. You get the image in front of your face, then on top of your head, then try to get it into a white line coming down through your body (with much bliss!) and say to yourself: Please give me your wisdom mind. This starts with the lama and ends with the lama. In between, we have Dr Akong Tulku Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku, Teresa, The Dalai Lama, Kalu Rinpoche, Lama Thebten Yeshe, The Sixteen Karmapa, and, finally, The Seventeenth Karmapa. After I do the lama again, I then go onto Christ's face from the Turin Shroud.

Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace.
When the Shroud face is visualised over the head, I say: Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison ...

I could fit the Buddha Boy in there somewhere, but it's crowded enough really.

I've only got till one o clock, so I'd better crack on!

11:10 p.m.
Just about then, mid-morning, Albert showed up. He looks as if somebody has just dug him up. When I saw Albert about six years ago, I thought he looked really terrible then, and was coming round to see old friends for the last goodbye. He looks just as bad now. I wonder how long he's looked that bad. Can't have long to go now, not looking as awful as that. At least, he's got some hair on his head which is more than you can say for some people.

He said he didn't want to disturb me. Sometimes if you're sitting in the temple at the Samye Ling, tourists come in and say, "It's awful quiet in here" in a loud voice. He only stayed five minutes. Just enough to completely unsettle me. You see your demise in the collapsed, prune-like faces of your contemporaries. I doubt if he's going to make it up the stairs again anyway.

I got my life back about six o clock and had a wonderfully reassuring meditation then for over an hour. Then the skipping, jumpings and shadow boxings. Felt clean after that. Cleansed. Then another great meditation.

The bliss today has been at times extraordinary. I'm into the extraordinary bliss now, Jack. Sometimes it was almost whao scary. The whao scary bliss. Shame the basturns took my wonderful Thursday away from me, but there you go. Win some, lose some.

The photies were taken in the good mother's back garden this afternoon.