dan collier

Once Seung Sahn Soen-sa and a student of his attended a talk at a Zen center in California. The Dharma teacher spoke about Bodhidharma. After the talk, someone asked him “What’s the difference between Bodhidharma’s sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?”

The Dharma teacher said, “About five thousand miles.”
The questioner said, “Is that all?”
The Dharma teacher said, “Give or take a few miles.”

Later on, Soen-sa asked his student, “What do you think of these answers?”
“Not bad, not good. But the dog runs after the bone.”
“How would you answer?”
“I’d say, ‘Why do you make a difference?’ “

Soen-sa said, “Not bad. Now you ask me.”
“What’s the difference between Bodhidharma’s sitting in Sorim for nine years and your sitting here now?”
“Don’t you know?”
“I’m listening.”
“Bodhidharma sat in Sorim for nine years. I am sitting here now.”

The student smiled.

Seung Sahn, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, Chapter 87

Some pictures and thoughts on my recent trip to Sweden and Portugal.

First, a view from the front porch of the cottage where Johanna, Naomi, and Jaxon are living on Bullandö. If you look closely, you can make out the white tent that held Johanna’s sister Charlotta’s wedding party.

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After a couple days and some last minute searching (thank you for one more thing, Fredde), we were off to Portugal. I liked Portugal very much. I look forward to going back.

We spent the first and last night in Lisbon. Given the inevitable comparison to Stockholm, where we left from and returned to, it certainly lacked something. But it is a cool city on hills with maddeningly winding and narrow roads and a downtown pedestrian shopping district.

The first really scenic town we visited was Obidos. Like most of the cool towns and cities, it is a walled city. Walking the city walls was always interesting. In the picture below, you can make out most of the ring wall.

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There were beautiful sights all along the way.

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And finally, looking back at the where we started.

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The next really scenic city we were in was Porto. Portugal’s second city to Lisbon, it seems much nicer. In the same way Boston is easier to navigate and live in than New York City. I’d probably prefer Porto to all three.

The next picture is from our hotel balcony, across the Rio Douro, of a nice building they lit up at night in the city Gaia.

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Walking and driving around Porto and Braga and the nearby country-side was very nice. I’m sure the northwest coast of Portugal would have been great. But we wanted to see the other side of the country, so we headed for the Spanish border and the town of Miranda do Douro. Here is the Rio Douro again, with Spain on the other side. As we expected, there wasn’t much of a town, but the drive in and out were beautiful.

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Along the way, you couldn’t help but notice that the Portuguese are very open about their ideals for beauty and attitude. It was easy to agree with them. Sim, sim, muito bom.

This statue was in the river-side park of a small highway town in the middle of the country.

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On our way back from Miranda do Douro, we stayed in Coimbra. A university town on a hills with a river running through downtown, it was even nicer than I expected.

Then on our last full day in Portugal we went to Sintra and Cascais. Both were tourist towns, with Sintra being much nicer. The highlight was the ruins of the Moorish Castle. It was perched on the top of a mountain, overlooking another beautiful old town and the Atlantic.

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Seeing the Atlantic from the heights, we headed for the coastal city of Cascais to soak our aching feet. There were more police in Cascais than I saw in all the rest of Portugal put together. It was odd. There were some beaches with reportedly consistent waves outside of town. It was a choppy day and a sandstorm on the beach when we were there.

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And then it was back to Bullandö for a day and then to Stockholm. We were very kindly invited to stay in the honeymooning couple’s apartment in the Kungsholmen district (well, island) of Stockholm. Stockholm in the summertime is a spectacularly beautiful city. Though that may be, it didn’t surprise me that Johanna and the kids went back to the Swedish country-side when I left. Any real Swede would do the same.

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If you’re interested, there’s more information on where I was
on this Google Map.

A carving displayed among other more modest ruins in an old church courtyard in downtown Braga, Portugal.
Taken July 6, 2007 1:21 PM.

The kids playing in front of Flyggan, their great-grandparent’s guest house in Bullandö, Sweden.

Close up of Naomi. And me in her reflection.Monday, July 2, 2007, 12:45PM

Jaxon and Naomi on Farfar Lars’ dock in Bullandö.
Taken Thursday, June 28, 2007 11:09