A correspondent has asked me about retreats. In this present time of the covid crisis it’s difficult for us to meet or to all go to the temple to do a retreat together with a teacher.
So, how does one do a retreat on one’s own? In many places in the
Read more…In June I did a podcast about the Sincere Mind. The Sincere Mind is one of the three minds that were written about by the great Pureland Teacher Shan Dao.
The second of these three minds is the Profound Mind. When we say that we are profoundly affect
Read more…I would like to share the following words with you:
“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would loose it’s meaning, if it was not balanced by sadness. It’s far better to take things as they come along – with
Read more…These days I live alone in a rustic farmhouse set deep in the countryside. Living alone I can follow my own rhythm. I go to sleep when I’m tired, I get up when I wake. Perhaps I go outside and enjoy the calm atmosphere of the dawn before the sun has
Read more…I have been asked to say something about karma. Tall order in 5 minutes! So, here it goes:
Karma is our entanglement in the world of conditions. Buddha said that the whole world is on fire. We can easily be consumed by that fire. It is as if every ob
Read more…In the last podcast I talked about the monks and the bodhisattvas. As soon as we think them, we are inspired by heroic ideals. We see the possibility of a life of purity or, alternatively, of complete altruism.
Honen Shonen, the founder of the Purela
Read more…At the beginning of many of the great Mahayana sutras, the Buddha is surrounded by an assembly, and this assembly is described, at the beginning of the sutra, and there are various groups of people and beings present; and the first two groups that ar
Read more…Since in the last podcast I talked about the value of wearing a mask, I’m sure some listeners have been thinking about the question of authenticity.
When one puts on a mask, is one not being inauthentic?
If one had a true self that was constant, then
Read more…We are all wearing masks these days to protect us and others from the transmission of the virus. In this podcast I would like to talk about psychological masks.
We can, perhaps, agree that we often put on a psychological mask in order to cope with th
Read more…Following on from my last two podcasts I would like to say that the aim in this kind of spiritual life is not that one not experience pain. The aim – if we can call it that - is that one emerges from a travail, whatever it is, as a wiser, kinder pers
Read more…In some of this weekend’s zoom meetings we have been discussing the relationship between or balance or how you handle strong emotions against the Buddhist principle of equanimity. This is the kind of challenge we all face from time to time.
We mostly
Read more…Though others kill, we shall be kind.
And by being kind we shall heal the world.
Though others steal and exploit, we shall be generous and hospitable.
And by doing so, we shall make a refuge for the world.
Though others spit forth hatred and incite t
Read more…