That’s an interesting question…for dharma partitioners…!
There is a story we can tell ‘about’ it…but what did actually happen? Was it ‘real’?
Here’s some of the story of aspects behind the scenes…
From the club being wound-up with debts of half million pounds in 2020…rising to the match last Saturday when….despite being 117 places below them in the league…they beat last season’s F.A. cup-winners 2: 1
Macclesfield Town’s football team, the ‘Silkmen’, have risen like a phoenix from the ashes!
Having retained the family feel of football clubs of the past… and succeeding, with enthusiasm drive and talent…the club members and fans were jubilant at this result…running onto the pitch and hoisting aloft Paul Dawson, one of the goal scorers.
Just twenty-five days before this match one of their most talented young players, who seems also to have been an all-round lovely person, aged 21… was killed in a car crash returning from a match…and the club is still in mourning…
Manager John Rooney said ‘It puts life into perspective… seven days before, he scored a goal for us, and seven days later he’s not here any more. It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever been involved in.
The match against Crystal Palace is a massive occasion, but it is a game of football at the end of the day.
We want to perform all of the time, but there are bigger things out there than just a game of football.’
So well said…so poignant is this life, and no-thing is certain.
His team mate Danny Elliot said that they assumed ‘he’d have fifteen years or so of F.A cup runs ahead of him…. but life has strange ways of not being what you think it might be’…Indeed it has!
When goal-scorer Paul Dawson was just three years old …James Low came up to Macclesfield and started to teach a few of us in the way his teacher had asked him to…starting at the top, and in a way that helps them (us) get the point.
While players were playing at home in the Moss Rose ground ‘the emotional epicentre of Macclesfield, which radiates a unique charm that fans across the country envy’ ! : ) – or away…an increasing number of dharma-fans gathered once or twice a year to sit and listen to James teach.
His teachings… over the ensuing twenty years…have given us the opportunity to engage with the great depth and breadth of the dharma that he offered.
The topics he has covered are wide ranging… yet are accessible on some level to anyone with interest …and are listed here.
These teachings are, for the many of us who do so, a joy to listen to…
It can be such a blessed relief to hear someone who actually knows ‘how it is’, and can explain how we also might see more clearly… having devoted much of his life-energy to transmitting what can truly help us… in different ways.
This listening can in itself act as a soothing massage…but there is such a lot of nourishment in the talks that will only become available to us through our own careful and reflective mastication!
A thought arose to bring these teachings to wider attention and deeper engagement…and a format for this has now emerged.
Each of these talks was recorded…these recordings have been transcribed, so transcripts are also available on the Simplybeing.co.uk website… Audios>Retreats> England>Macclesfield…(reading as well as listening is valuable)…and for most talks there are also video recordings you can watch.
The idea is to study each talk for a month then meet together to discuss, check and discover more through engaging with others in the group.
James’ advice for studying is… ‘perhaps listening for half an hour at a time then reflecting…’ and in our weekly group, sharing could be helpful.
Slowing down enough to engage in this way may not be easy… but it will allow for deeper perfusion and absorption than just allowing the talks to flow over us…one after another… as I did for many years : )
To give some sense of the listening time required for this… the talks are much the same in length, the first is about 300mins long…so that’s ten sessions of 30 minutes of listening time plus reflecting time ..so maybe ten hours a month?
That might seem a lot…or not… but maybe puts into question where does true value lie?
How much of this life’s time is being invested in the, inherently unsatisfying, transient..?
The average time spent on smartphones per day seems to vary from between three and a half… and five and a half hours a day. Mid-way between, at four and a half hours, is one whole day per week…
The meetings will be on the third Sunday of the month between 4pm and 6pm UK time
James suggested that we try ’45 minutes in groups of 3… then 30 minutes together with you for questions and discussion, then another 45 minutes in another 3 reflecting on how they could apply their learning in everyday life.’… so we can give that a go!
The first meeting… on the talk ‘The View of Dzogchen’… will be on 15th March, so happily there’s more than a month from now to begin to become acquainted with this profound view…
As, I think, Suzuki Roshi said ‘the most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing’… and through engaging with these teachings we have a chance to open to this most important ‘no-thing’
If you are interested in coming to the monthly meetings, or have any questions… let me know via the ‘Contact Me’ form…(top right)
Please add a sentence or two that shows… eg by addressing me by name, including your name.. referencing the meeting date, title of the talk…that you are not a robot!
…and last but not least…may all our studies and practice go well… for the benefit of all….
