I have spent the past weekend at meetings of the Amida Order in Malvern in UK. Apart from approving the advancement of a number of good people there was not a lot of "business" so we were able to concentrate upon our relationships with each other and with life and upon practising together. The whole thing turned out very well. The temple in Malvern is very comfortable and the location superb. It is difficult to convey the quality of interaction between people to those who were not there -…

I suppose that for many people politics seems something rather remote. For me, it is always close to my heart. Not that I strongly support this or that party, but because the issues are of such consequence. This is perhaps because of my early years having been passed in the Middle East where those consequences are evident in a more raw way. Over my lifetime I have watched as a pivotal region of the world has been systematically wrecked and ruined. Beautiful, cosmopolitan, multi-religious…

I (Geeta) can offer up to 3 people a lift from Surrey to Eleusis, leaving at 5 am on 1st June and/or returning to England about 5 pm on 4th June. I can offer one person (or a couple) accommodation on the night before we travel and the night that we return.

Thank you Geeta - nice offer.

The Russian Orthodox certainly know how to do pomp and ceremony

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-40002536/russian-faithful-flock-to-st-nicholas-relics

My manuscript for a book about Zen Master Dogen based on his seminal work Genjo Koan has been accepted in principle by a UK based publisher. There is always quite a process to go through so it probably won't actually appear in the shops before this time next year, but we shall see.

I am currently working on an article commissioned by Tricycle magazine for their next special issue which is on the theme of Fear.

The book that is being produced based on my Questions in the Sand…

In case you missed it http://eleusis.ning.com/group/campus/forum/topics/the-land-where-the-may-tree-blooms

Rencontre entre David Brazier & LN Wangmo

les 10 & 11 juin 2017

à Saint-Martin-Lestra…

Heartwarming story of a Buddhist village in Nepal recovering from the earthquake.

These are the courses that I am planning to offer in Seoul, S. Korea this summer.

THREE FIVE DAY PSYCHOTHERAPY & COUNSELLING WORKSHOPS WORKSHOP

7-11 August 2017 ~ Workshop 1

SNOW UPON A SILVER PLATE [ 銀盌盛雪]: PRINCIPLES OF BUDDHIST PSYCHOLOGY & THEIR PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC APPLICATION

In this workshop we shall introduce and review important aspects of Buddhist psychology including the conditioned and unconditioned mind,…

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The years 2016 and 2017 may well be seen from the future as a turning point in world politics. There is certainly a sense that the current order is fragmenting in Europe and North America, and that the balance of power in the Far East is shifting. In the Middle East there is still no sight of the end of war, but we can pray that some new arrangement can be found that will bring the killing to an end and start what will be a long process of reconciliation. We can sense what may be…

Kids talking about refugees. My grand daughter is one of the children asking questions.

The following is the text of a message I sent out within the Amida sangha earlier today...

This morning we awake to find out what the majority of Americans really think, just as we woke to the news of the vote of Brexit a little while ago. Realism is better than sweet illusion. The new American president-to-be won by realising that this was the case and that by expressing the fears and concerns of the people he would garner greater support than by repeating conventional…

The BBC have run a couple of articles recently about the problem of being a long term expat. I can identify with much of what is written - not feeling 'at home' anywhere; finding it better not to talk about one's past or where one has been as it is taken as pretentious or rouses envy; not being able to talk about things embedded in the culture of one's own country as one was not there; having picked up 'international' attitudes; having language and phraseology that is slightly out of kilter…

An interesting comparison from the JSRI site. I have highlighted the phrase "Shan-tao felt human nature was always in opposition to the nature of buddhas" because I think that this principle has huge importance for out understanding of Buddhist psychology and Buddhist practice, and it is, of course, at odds with much contemporary presentation of Buddhism.…

Mourning a royal bodhisattva.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37650466

"The nation belongs to everyone, not one or two specific people. Those who confront each other will all be the losers. And the loser of the losers will be the nation...

"For what purpose are you telling yourself that you're the winner when you're standing upon the ruins and debris?"

This is a picture of me exploring the forest on Big Island Hawaii in August 2006 during a time when I was visiting the sanghe there..

In Principles Against Common Fallacies I wrote...

6. Nothing is indivisibly singular.

This is an interesting philosophical issue to consider. There are philosophies centres on the notion of zero - that all is 'emptiness' and there are philosophies centred on the notion of 'oneness'. These two 'numbers', one and zero are oddities. They are almost as odd as…