Satsang – what is satsang? Sat is truth, sang is sangha. Satsang is the sangha gathered in the spirit of truth; or we could say it is the truth that is manifested in the sangha. In practice satsang is to spend time with the teacher, to sit in the pre
Read more…I’ve come close to death on a number of occasions and crossed the threshold a couple of times. Death – death is not the enemy. Death is not an enemy, it’s a friend. It’s something to look forward to. This attitude is the true spirit of Buddhism. It’s
Read more…The other day I heard a media report about how President Macron and his wife had had a terrible row. I didn’t read the details of the report, but I did think: “What do you expect? They’re a couple. Couples have rows.” But, of course, if you’re the pr
Read more…In Buddhism we talk about the three poisons.The three poisons are greed, hate and delusion. These are poisons in the sense that they can destroy, or at least make unhealthy, the spiritual life. A poison enters into a whole body and makes it malfuncti
Read more…You cannot recognise a bodhisattva by marks or signs. Sometimes the bodhisattva is calm and peaceful, sometimes the bodhisattva is wrathful, sometimes a joker, sometimes a provocateur, sometimes creative, sometimes a destroyer. The bodhisattva appear
Read more…This morning we heard the news of the death of Suvidya, the leader of the Pureland Sangha in Delhi in India. This is a tragic event and we are all very shocked and sad. Suvidya contracted a fever, probably the covid virus, but because the hospitals a
Read more…It’s good to learn about Buddhism. It is even better to discuss what you’ve learnt about Buddhism with other members of the Sangha. In that way the relationships grow and deepen. It’s best of all to hear the teachings - to have the teachings transmit
Read more…Umlenkung oder höchste Erfüllung?
In der eben zitierten Passage von Freud finden wir den Begriff "Sublimierung". In vielen Interpretationen Freuds neigt man dazu, Sublimierung aus den oben genannten Gründen quasi als eine Form von Psychopathologie z
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Redirection or Highest Fulfilment?
In the passage just quoted from Freud we find the term 'sublimation'. In many readings of Freud, sublimation tends to be taken as virtually a form of psychopathology for reasons touched on above. However, the basi
Read more…It’s an interesting speculation that the Pureland tradition may go back not only to the Buddha but even beyond to Zoroaster, the great sage of Persia who founded one of the first know religions in the world. Zoroastrianism still exists in the religio
Read more…The Denkōroku (伝光録) is a book written by Keizan who was a successor to Dogen Zenji. The Denkōroku is The Book of the Transmission; it has chapters for each of the ancestors of the transmission of the Dharma.
The first chapter is the chapter on Shakya
Read more…It’s a beautiful spring morning, bright and frosty here in France, and going outside this morning I hear the birds all twittering away in the trees, getting ready for a big day of nest construction. In these conditions it’s very easy to understand th
Read more…Shakyamuni Buddha lived 2500 years ago. We know many stories about him both from before his enlightenment and after his enlightenment. One of the famous stories from his childhood is the story of him beneath the rose apple tree.
When he was a little
Read more…In one of our services, we encounter the words: „There are beings with little dust in their eyes, who are wasting through not hearing the Dharma. There will be those who will understand.” And, of course, when we hear these words, probably a bit of us
Read more…This Easter we are having a retreat in which to transmit the text Summary of Faith and Practice. The text Summary of Faith and Practice is based upon the Ichimai Kishomon, the “One Sheet Testament”, written by Honen Shonen shortly before his death in
Read more…This coming weekend we are celebrating the Upavastha, our Full Moon event when we reflect upon the past and make resolutions for the future. This particular weekend we are also celebrating the memories of people who have been important to our Sangha
Read more…Sometime back I gave some podcasts on the skandhas. So, let’s do a little revision.
The first skandha is rupa. Rupa is an appearance that has an effect, an effect upon the observer – oneself. One sees something and one reacts to it. If it’s something
Read more…The term “shravaka“ can be translated as “disciple“. The word implies “one who hears or heeds“ and also “one who speaks, expresses“. So, from this we can see what is the role of the disciple. The disciple is one who
- hears the Dharma,
- receives
In the Tibetan schools of Buddhism, a teacher is called a Lama. In this word “lama”, the “la” means “high“ or “best“, and “ma” as in many languages, means “mother“. So, the Lama is the “best mother”, and this idea, that the teacher, ideally even the
Read more…In our Upavastha Full Moon retreats we use the Vajrasattva 100-syllables dharani. This dharani - a dharani is a kind of extended mantra - is associated with purification. Vajrasattva is the bodhisattva (or yidam) of purification; and purity, and here
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