Returning after extended absence: Remember the Hot Seat?

[Geordon]

Greetings and salutations.  I am Brother Geordon Shoshin VanTassle, and I have been ordained since Sept 1, 1993.  At that time, My wife and I were practicing Wiccans and I felt a duty to take ordination in the event that anyone in our community needed something "legal" that needed the backing of an established church.  Nobody needed my help by the time that I moved away.

 

Years passed.  A divorce happened, jobs changed, I remarried.  My second wife and I have been married since 1999, we had a child together and we raised our child and her two children from her first marriage into wonderful people.  We made friends in the local SCA group and they all knew that I was ordained, but nobody, including me, made much of it, since it wasn't a large part of my persona.

 

...Or so I thought.  Looking back on the years, I came to realize that people generally sought me out for comfort and support of a spiritual sort.  I helped them examine their feelings and options, and helped them decide on what to do next.  Really, most people just want a compassionate ear when times are rough.  I felt a great deal of satisfaction in being able to provide that.

 

About 12 years ago, I started studying various sects of Buddhism, including Hīnayāna, Vipassanā, Theravāda, and both contemporary schools of Zen: Sotō and Rinzai.  I settled on Zen, since the concepts that it teaches (that there is no self.  The self (and every other thing) is dependent on relations to other things to form an identity.  Roughly.  In short, we are all part of the same whole.  Think of the line from the Bible where Jesus say something about "what you do to the least, you do to Me" or something like that.

 

I continued to pursue Pagan practices as well, and joined the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids by taking the first (Bardic) of their home study courses.  I'm still working on that one, even 10, 15 years later (I can't rightly remember, but it's at LEAST 10 years) and plan to move to the second step (Ovate) in the near future.

 

I became a Devotee of Hekate, in the Covenant of Hekate in mid-2017 and I also took jukai (Buddhist lay precepts) under Meido Roshi from Korinji Rinzai Zen Monastery on December 3 of 2017.  This just happened to be the same day that the monastery was celebrating Bodhi Day, the day of Buddha's Enlightenment.

 

This latter was a very moving experience for me, and I have a blog post about it here: Hello, my name is Shoshin 正心.  At that time, I was given the kaimyō (precept name, dharma name) of Shoshin, which roughly means "correct mind."  In further consultation with Roshi, after I was trying to figure out the kanji for my name, he said that "Your "sho" means "correct/true/straight", as in the straightforward mind of awakening."  This is a lot to live up to!  Fortunately, he told us that the names can be seen as something to strive for.

 

Anyway, I'm back to the forum here.  I'm not sure what brought me back, but let's go with it!

[mark 45]

welcome back.

[Geordon]

Thanks, Mark!  My first time around was shortly after The Pickle Incident.

 

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

I'm happy to see you here.  I think your addition will help the quality of conversation.  

[Geordon]

On 4/8/2018 at 2:05 PM, Jonathan H. B. Lobl said:

I'm happy to see you here.  I think your addition will help the quality of conversation.  

You do me honor.  I will certainly work to be a (mostly) quality contributor, with occasional bouts of shenanigans. 

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

12 minutes ago, Geordon said:

You do me honor.  I will certainly work to be a (mostly) quality contributor, with occasional bouts of shenanigans. 

 

It will work out -- as long as you ask the right questions.  Like -- "What's 8 x 6 ?"

 

[Geordon]

Don't forget your towel!

 

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

1 hour ago, Geordon said:

Don't forget your towel!

 

 

Or the salted peanuts.  

[Rev. Calli]

Greetings to you my brother,

 

Welcome back!

 

In solidarity,

Rev. Calli

[Kingfisher]

My name, roughly translated from the tongue of my ancestors, means "shepherd king".

 

How does that old saw go... "God never gives you anything more than you can handle, I just wish He didn't trust me so much."

 

Welcome home, Brother. I look forward to seeing things from your point of view. Every seat is a hot one around here, ain't it?

 

              ⚸

𒀭 ☸

 

 

[mark 45]

On 4/9/2018 at 11:07 PM, Jonathan H. B. Lobl said:

 

It will work out -- as long as you ask the right questions.  Like -- "What's 8 x 6 ?"

 

i thought it was 6x7,but i could be wrong.

[Jonathan H. B. Lobl]

58 minutes ago, mark 45 said:

i thought it was 6x7,but i could be wrong.

 

 

You're missing the point.  Eight times six is not forty two.  The Universe is deeply flawed.  The reason that nothing ever seems to make sense, is that in truth -- nothing does make sense. 

 

Just a reminder.  There are five books in the trilogy.  Think about that.