I have been back at Eleusis nearly two weeks. I am very happy to be home again. When I arrived it was the beginning of the Anshin Retreat. It was an intensive week and gave me an opportunity to reconnect with the Amida Sangha.
I am very happy that w
It was a sunny day here and we all got on with a variety of practical tasks - liming walls, cutting grass, going shopping, taking departing visitors to the railway station. By the end of the day we were six people here looking forward to a fairly qui
Read more…It has been a gentle day. In the morning Elja and I took Maitrisimha and Annetta to the station to catch their train north. We stayed in town long enough to have a coffee at a cafre. We had taken Tara, as we are trying to get her used to car travel.
Read more…Today we all went to the summer open day at Oasis. There was a fine Dharma talk by Zen teacher Henri Duran from Moulins. He used the name of the centre "Oasis de Longue Vie" as the asis of an exposition of basic Zen Buddhist principles. There were th
Read more…Retreat Week
The past week we have been in a retreat focussed on the theme of Anshin - settled faith & peaceful mind. We have enjoyed being a Dharma community of eleven people. There is plenty elsewhere on the site about the theme.
This morning we al
Read more…When you are very small and the world is very big and new...
you have to investigate everything carefully...
Here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) we are already on the third day of our Anshin Retreat. There has not been time to write Dailies or Daily teachings, but my talks here are being filmed and will appear eventually. Apart from the activities of the retr
Read more…This weekend has been a special meeting of the Amida Order here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis). during the proceedings there has been a ceremony marking Elja's admission into postulancy which is a stage in her career within the Order. It was a moving a
Read more…It has been a big day for Tara exploring, finding out how to climb onto the table, attempt the stairs, fight with human feet and even go for as trip in the car.
all of which means that one needs a lot of dream time to process it all
Well, it started with the shock of learning that Britain had voted to leave the EU. I really felt the shock of it. Being so often out of kilter with my fellow countrymen I perhaps shoudl have known, but the reality is something else.
Then we had a me
Read more…This morning I was here alone. I completed various jobs making the place welcoming. Cut the grass around the rose garden. Swept out our new meeting area in the big barn and put up a Buddhist flag. Did a lot of washing. It was a hot day, so I was able
Read more…Today temperatures were up in the thirties. A sudden burst of heat. I wonder if we shall have more. I was doing physical work most of the day and when I came in I had a good thirst.
A friend came by and we discussed the imminent referendum which the
Read more…The longest day - mid-summer on some counts! ... and full moon to boot.
I am here alone at the moment, which is another kind of bliss.
Second breakfast...
I took it outside. Warm yet fresh after rain...
Summer's day. Birds singing after rain.
Nothin
I have spent some quiet time here since I returned. I have been walking around with crutches, and these last days most of the time with one crutch. I also spent some time with family and friends. I slept a lot and to pass the time I knit a scarf. The
Read more…This morning Annette came to our Sunday service and afterwards helped us with our phone connection problem with some success - many thanks!! We now have a working phone connection again. Then, later, continuing my spring clean, moving a heap of thing
Read more…I have been reading Yeats...
I am haunted by numberless islands, and many a Dana-an shore,
Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near us no more,
So far from the rose and the lily and fret of the flame would we be,
Were we only white bir
Today I put the hammock up, but it has not stopped the rain from falling. We hang it between two trees behind the house. The larger of the two is our largest walnut tree. Although we take the hammock inside during the winter it is impossible to take
Read more…Life without Wifi
We have had nearly a week without internet here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis). Although we missed being able to communicate with all our friends in the usual way, it has been rather nice to have this little retreat. Initially we thou
Read more…Today I was outdoors most of the day and my major achievement was to weed the strawberry patch. Disentangling strawberry plants from the little creeper that grows among them, twining itself around their stems, is quite a fiddly task. I also sent a la
Read more…Last night we had a beautiful sky. After the sunset the pale blue was banded with swathes of pink. The calm of evening held one like a tender embrace.
This morning we went to market in Sancoins. I am feeling swamped by nostalgia. I’m sure that this is
