Commentary upon the Summary of Faith and Practice, part two.
Text: wishing to practise a religious life
A Foundation
The wish to practice a religious life is the foundation of meaning and happiness. Nowadays, many people have no idea about living a
Commentary on the Summary of Faith and Practice, Part One
Text: For those having a karmic affinity with Amitabha Buddha
This is the first phrase of the Summary. It tells us for whom this text is written and to whom it applies. An implication is that
Sometimes i think that I have been travelling all my life. This is somewhat true, both literally and metaphorically. The endless spiritual journey takes one to ever new domains of life-meaning, especially if one is willing to take the risks that pop
Read more…When the Buddha is asked what is essential for the pursuit of the spiritual path he often puts shraddha at the start of the list. Shraddha is commonly translated as 'faith'. However, shrad is heart, so it is also possible to render shraddha as hearte
Read more…In Chinese Buddhism, the idea of the mind as a mirror became a much used metaphor. There are a number of interesting features of mirroring that can help us to understand spiritual practice and investigate the nature of mindfulness.
Firstly, a mirror
Read more…In the Spectator, Lara Prendergast writes:
From chaperones to modesty wear, a sexual reformation is underway. While embracing so much freedom, society is moving towards prudishness.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/11/the-sexual-reformation-has-opene
Read more…In Part One we stopped to take a look at mindfulness and in Part Two we found many different ways of understanding what mindfulness is.
We considered different forms of consciousness that can be considered mindful. What, however, of yet other forms
Read more…In Part One we looked at mindfulness as punctuating the day with times of immediate, here and now, bare awareness, appreciating beauty. Thich Nhat Hanh equated mindfulness with “seeing deeply”, by which he meant that when you hold a cup in your hand
Read more…The practices that now go under the heading of mindfulness are not new but they have taken on a special relevance as we have become more and more conscious of stress.
Early in the twentieth century William Davies wrote a poem that became famous...
W
Read more…A correspondent recently wrote to me as follows:
"When you talk to me about grief you never say stuff like 'This is all just a figment of your deluded conditioning. Grief isn’t real. Well, it’s only real in relative terms anyway. If you could just
Read more…A view that I encounter repeatedly in Buddhist circles is the notion that in order to be enlightened one needs to have a correct idea of… emptiness, interbeing, oneness, the real nature of Amida, nonduality… you name it.
One is told that when one full
In this item I would like to bring together two ideas. The first idea is that of an implicit contract in the couple relationship. A contact is an agreement of the "If you do this, I'll do that" variety. There has to be some complementarity between tw
Read more…Here is an interesting article on relationships
The two main points are
1. that there is an important distinction between wha
Read more…I have been reading a very useful article by Paul Graham which points out in detail how "US politics is much more polarized than it used to be. Culturally we have ever less common ground. The creative class flocks to a handful of happy cities, abando
Read more…I recently read an article that argued that (a) there is no necessary relationship between meditation and mysticism and that (b) the purpose of meditation is purely the cultivation of positive moral traits. Given in support of this was the observatio
Read more…The attempt to fit Buddhism into the secular, technical, reductionist mindset of modernity often has the effect of turning the matter on its head. Thus, we now find Western schools of practice – I hesitate to call them schools of Buddhism – in which
Read more…I recently read the description of a presentation by Scott Miller "Over the last 40 years, thousands of research studies and how-to books on psychotherapy have been published. Presently, hundreds of treatment approaches exist, each claiming to contai
Read more…Each school of Buddhism has its favoured texts and its favoured practices. Thus, for instance, the Soto Zen Shu favours the Diamond and Heart Sutras, (and was once based on the Lankavatara) and emphasises the practice of zazen, while the Pureland sch
Read more…I got back to La Ville au Roi last night. It is cooler than when I left ten days ago. Autumn has arrived.I shall have an easy day today after travelling. Unpack the car - I have brought various things back - a chair, a bed, some plates, other small i
Read more…The year is turning, the leaves are going yellow, wind and rain break up the sunnier times.
My trip to Korea proved to be a great success. Last year I was unable to go due to illness, so it was good to get back into the swing of the work and the prog
Read more…