Wings of Enlightenment

I love that my brother, my husband and I all went to listen to the author of this book, Living as a River, read from his book last night. We sat for a very happy hour listening to him not only read from his book but go on to discuss life, meditation, and all that deep and wonderful stuff so few people spend any time even thinking about. The author, Bodhipaksa (a former Scottish veterinarian) has been popping up in my life in strange ways, recently. First, I looked online for a meditation training for somebody I know...his request was to not actually go for meditation training but to learn how to do it online. So I set out to find an online meditation training course and what did I find? Www.wildmind.org, Bodhipaksa's website, Wildmind. That meant little to me at the time, tho I did bookmark the website and sent the link to my friend because it looked interesting. Next, as I was searching around on the internet for a writing class as both my husband and I want to take a writing class together, I stumbled on to RiverRun, a locally-owned and very cool bookstore right down the street, and who was giving a talk the day after my brother arrived from NY via a Buddhist "retreat" in Rockport? This author, with the curious Indian name.

And then I find out that the second meditation series that my husband and I are taking (we have elevated ourselves to the intermediate meditation group..haha) at a local Buddhist center is taught by......Bodhipaksa, the author of this amazing book on the nature of who we are. There must be some meaning in that. And, last night after listening to him for an hour, I had the most amazing dream. My husband, brother and I were traveling around Europe meeting the most intriguing people, getting lost, regrouping, so thoroughly enjoying life.

Yes, I find the Buddhist names people take on when they join the Buddhist order, odd. I can barely refer to people by their Buddhist names (Narotana taught our first meditation class...Nara who?) but it is the tradition so it is what it is. Bodhipaksa, of course I had to look that up...what does that name mean?...means "Wings of Enlightenment." OK, Graeme Stephen (his birth name) I can live with that because I really, really, liked what you had to say last night.

Oh, and, big thanks to my brother for buying a copy of the book for Ken and me. Love you so much!