Un profeta nel deserto
mi sto sediendo e mangiando il mio pane quotidiano
mentre le locuste consumano il mondo.
Il sole splende alla mia finestra
come brillerà quando siamo andati,
quando finestre essiste non di più.
È una vita semplice qui in campagna,
una
In this piece I would like to briefly restate my understanding of the Four Truths. This is already set out in my books The Feeling Buddha and Not Everything is Impermanent and will be familiar to those of my students who follow my work closely. It wi
Read more…Seduto sotto il noce
Guardo la luna piena che sale
Il sole è tramontato, gli uccelli si sistemano,
la notte è in arrivo.
Una grande pace avvolge.
Sotto l'albero i narcisi brillano
in mezzo a un tappeto di fiori primaverili selvaggi.
Sorseggio il mio tè e ri
OUTLINE
The medical metaphor is used a lot in Buddhist studies. The Buddha is sometimes referred to as “the great physician” curing the dis-eases of the world. The Four Truths which are fundamental to Buddhism - dukkha, samudaya, nirodha and marga -
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So what, now, is the colour of your soul
Does it change? Will it flaunt a gaudy frock?
Is it young, yet with a lining old as gold?
Does it rhyme like the ticking of a clock?
Do you ever wear a rainbow as a shirt
when you really should have kept things mo
Currently, the idea of “being in the here and now” is à la mode. and I find it a truly interesting matter to reflect upon.
Here and now I am sitting in the middle room in my house in France. The walls are white. The wood stove is black. Observations
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Negative thoughts and feelings are a bane of human life. They are the downside of the great gift of imagination. A person insults one in some way and one finds oneself riling with unwanted emotions. Thoughts of vengance, or bitterness, or guilt, or m
I am at Vajra’s. Here the day starts with meditation. I sit. How does one meditate? I have been doing it for decades. I must have sat thousands of hours now - but how really should one meditate? I feel even more ignorant now than when I started all t
Read more…There is a strong tradition in Buddhism of reciting large numbers of mantras or other holy texts and invocations. These accumulate quantities of merit. Thus, some members of the Amida Shu undertake to recite a million nembutsu in the course of a year
Read more…When we read about Chinese or Japanese Buddhism we come across passages that say such things as that the master “eats when hungry, drinks when thirsty, sleeps when tired.” and the like. We might then think, “what is so different about that?” or we mi
Read more…The most famous classic of Chan Buddhism (Chinese Zen) is the Platform Sutra 六祖壇經. The sutra presents the teachings of Huineng 慧能 (638-713) [However, the text went through many revisions and the ten chapter edition that is currently taken as authorit
Read more…The following is my understanding of the main thrust of early Buddhism.
If we start from the “three signs”, I read them as saying that all samskaras are impermanent and troublesome whereas all Dharmas are non-self. The meaning here is that self, (i.e
Read more…Question : "Le bouddhisme est la croyance que des êtres deviennent éclairés, les arhats et les Bouddhas existent". Comment pouvons-nous vraiment savoir cela? J’ignore si j'ai déjà rencontré un Arhat ou un Bouddha. Et si c’est le cas, suis-je même cap
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