Don't Be Complacent About War in the Middle East
The biggest danger in the world at the moment is that the Middle East war transmute from a complex of minor wars into one big one. In my previous post on the region - Qatar - I tried to show how comple
Read more…Don't Be Complacent About War in the Middle East
The biggest danger in the world at the moment is that the Middle East war transmute from a complex of minor wars into one big one. In my previous post on the region - Qatar - I tried to show how comple
Read more…Macron's Remarkable Success
What can one say? So far it is a walk over. President Macron is getting what Theresa May wanted. There is still a week for things to go wrong but all the signs are that he will get the biggest parliamentary majority of the
Read more…Still a few results to come in but it looks as though there will be a weak and wobbly Conservative government dependent upon support from the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party. Several different trends seem to have emerged. Governing parties
Read more…The war in the Middle East is extremely difficult to unravel or understand. Basically the region has three Muslim power centres: Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. In addition, there is Israel which also has a very powerful military, but in the present p
Read more…The Problem
Throughout the history of Buddhism there have been controversies about the ideas of irreversibility and of determinism.These are to do with the inevitability (or not) of future arrival at nirvana, either for individuals or for all beings.
Read more…Summary of Faith & Practice Commentary
TEXT: the method of opening oneself to Amitabha's grace
COMMENTARY:
The Buddha has vowed to receive whoever turns to him in faith and calls his name. There are many ways of calling the name. Literally, we can sa
Read more…宠辱若惊，贵大患若身。
何谓宠辱若惊？
宠為下。
得之若惊
失之若惊
是谓宠辱若惊。
何谓贵大患若身？
吾所以有大患者，
為吾有身，
及吾无身，
吾有何患。
故贵以身為天下，
若可寄天下。
爱以身為天下，
若可托天下。
Favour and disgrace are overwhelming.
Treat them as if a great sufferings to yourself.
What are favour and disgrace except trouble and
Read more…Tectonic Changes
Looking at the world political scene it seems as though the dam has burst now. Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord, Merkel declaring that the US & UK are no longer dependable, news that the EU and China are moving ahead together -
Read more…Each morning I try to count the poppy blooms. I made it 74 today. They are not so easy to count.
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President Trump is critical of Germany for "trading unfairly" with the USA and using the EU to this end. This is surely correct. Germany runs up a huge surplus on trade by exporting more than it imports. It is able to do this because the euro, consid
Read more…Lavrov (last Saturday): “Libya was bombed and its government was violently overthrown. It was turned into a backyard for terrorists and criminals. The regime was changed with the help of fighters who came from Europe. They were free to leave their co
Read more…Back in February I wrote an article Europe will Fight Back. More recently I published an analysis of the “tectonics” of political change. Now we see some evidence that these articles were, perhaps, prescient.
It is not long since many were predicting
Read more…Merkel made the comment of the G7 meeting that it was not the seven but the six and the one. This referred particularly to the split between the US and the rest over climate change but also reflected the general tenor of the meeting. I have long pred
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QUESTION: Just a little question that's been on my mind recently. The second noble truth. Dukkha Samudaya. It is thirst for self-recreation that is associated with greed. It lights upon whatever pleasures are to be found here and there. It is thirst
Donald Trump's much publicised overseas trip is, so far, a bit of a washout. We have learnt that he is for peace and against terrorism - well, yes. On the other hand, we have also seen that he is pro-Israel and pro-Saud in a rather un-nuanced way tha
Read more…It is a delight and relief to see tiny fresh leaves growing on the lower twigs of the walnut trees. They all sent forth optimistic sprouts six weeks ago and then were hit by severe late frost, turning all black and forlorn. Recovery started at the cr
Read more…- USA: Impeachment? The likelihood of Trump being impeached seems to be increasing. At the moment the storm is revolving around Flynn who is refusing to co-operate with the various enquiries for fear of self-incrimination which does not impart confi
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QUESTION: Can you explain the idea of "two truths"?
SHORT ANSWER: Truth is truth and all encompassing, but there is a relative and an absolute way of intuiting it.
LONGER ANSWER: I am inclined to say that this idea of two truths is a misnomer. It is n
