Zero Tolerance

As you will have noticed, these past few months I haven't posted anything but it's because I've been on a prolonged "hibernation" retreat. These are similar to the traditional Tibetan 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days retreats where you don't get to interact with anyone and have your meals left for you outside your walled-up living space. However, a hibernation retreat is a tiny bit different as it involves mostly sleeping, accompanied by snoring mantras and an occassional take-away vegetarian pizza (or meals-on-wheels ready meal) .


Luckily enough my hibernation retreat came to an end just in time to enjoy my 60th birthday a few weeks ago. There's something about celebrating any birthday that has a zero at the end of it I feel, and as I've got older I've started to develop a "zero tolerance" of my ever-increasing age. Well, sort of...


My 60th birthday has entitled me to be the owner of a free bus pass which I can use on any or all local bus services throughout England (although not in Wales or Scotland - so much for a "United" Kingdom!). I can now travel from where I live in the far south to as far as Berwick-on-Tweed on the English/Scottish border free of charge as long as I use local bus services.


This freedom has inspired me to consider going on what Theravadin Buddhists call a tudong - a wandering from one place to another - although in my case it would be by bus rather than on foot. My aim would be to visit 108 bus stops along the way. This would, of course, give me an ideal opportunity to practice the paramita of kshanti or patience as in my experience buses tend not to come along for ages and then several arrive together.