"We miss you already" - these were the last words of the speech by Donald Tusk as he acknowledged receiving the UK's letter triggering withdrawal from the European Union.
So, the Brexit process is beginning. When, many years ago, my parents split up,
Read more…Commentary upon Summary of Faith and Practice (part 6)
TEXT
with body, speech and mind
COMMENTARY
This phrase occurs a great many times in Buddhist texts. Clearly it means “in all ways”. “Body” refers to behaviour. The body exists in the material wor
I am still reading, from time to time, the book of the diary of Sophia Tolstoy. Here I just want to pick out one theme from the many: jealousy. Sophia and her husband had a difficult marriage. The relationship was often stormy even though at times th
Read more…Continuing the commentary on Summary of Faith and Practice...
TEXT
If you can perform the practice in this simple minded way,
COMMENTARY
Of course, the simple mind may seem to be not so simple to arrive at. Modern life especially militates against it
The rain was heavy last night,
by noon once again all fine and clear,
on the horizon tiny clouds gathering
with attitude.
Were everything in one’s world pure
so would be one’s heart.
In that case, however,
No objection to stormy weather.
Unfortunately there are wars not just because of trials of strength between groups and nations, but also because it is in the interests of some to keep others at war. The Middle East was a relatively peaceful place when I lived there as a small child
Read more…La Ville au Roi stands upon a low hill. The hill is made of limestone. The buildings are made from it. The soil, such as it is, sits upon it. When you dig you run into it. It is useful - if you can get it out. Mostly, fortunately, it is in flat piece
Read more…TEXT:
Saving grace, as was made clear by Shan Tao's dream and advice to Tao Cho, only comes through the sange-mon.
COMMENTARY:
Sange means confession or contrition. The sange mon is, literally, the “gate of contrition”.
According to the story, towa
The way that Pureland Buddhism is sometimes presented, it starts to sound like monotheism. This is not surprising given that the conventional speech forms of monotheism are known to us all and, however much we might think we have rejected or moved aw
Read more…The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is, basically, an anti-Russia alliance. It has been led by the USA, though in the last decade or so, the EU has often played an equally influential part, while providing only a fraction of the funding or manpowe
Read more…QUESTION: This may seem a bizarre question but one I would like a Buddhist view on.is suicide a sin,in Christianity to commit suicide is a total sin considered evil and completely against all it teaches but in Japanese culture from the past a way of
Read more…Continuing the Commentary upon Summary of Faith and Practice
TEXT
Thus all obstacles become impediments to faith unless we experience contrition and letting go.
Path with a Goal
When we undertake a spiritual project, we are trying to achieve someth
President Trump has promised to "drain the swamp". What is the "swamp". Essentially it is corruption within the American system. The whole world it seems is suffering huge corruption problems at the moment. Prime Minister Modi, for instance, is much
Read more…I have posted a paper here.
If you are interested in the foundations of Buddhism, especially Mahayna, this may be of interest. I have been busy translating Dong Shan's poems and other material from Chinese and have arrived at rather different conclus
Read more…Mid-March and we might still have frosts to come. Apart from the proud daffodils this is the season of tiny flowers. Can somebody identify these little wonders for me? We have millions of them...
Look at those lovely darker blue lines in the petals g
What Does the UK Budget Tell Us?
The British government has just announced its budget for the coming year, though there will be some further announcements in the autumn. I think we can see some general indicators. Firstly, this is a cautious budget,
Read more…I am currently reading the diaries of Sophia Tolstoy who spent her life loving and fighting with her famous husband. He was a rich aristocrat who had a spiritual conversion and became a religious ascetic. He was thus intent upon renouncing all the th
Read more…There is no simple way to tell how well a country is doing economically. Economies are commonly ranked in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and we then say that the US comes first, China second and so on. However, GDP is simply a measure of money
Read more…Well, I said it was going to get warmer and wetter. Right now it is blowing a gale here at La Ville au Roi and as this house is on a small hill we are getting the full force of it. During the day it has been grey yet strangely warm. I sat out in a de
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