The world is perfectly round
though dented here and there.
Each August it picks up shooting stars
appearing from who knows where
My mind was never so perfectly round
triangular nor square
nor have I recently ever been
a whale, giraffe or koala bear.
Evolving
Another very hot day. I have been working all day on my book manuscript. As much as possible I have been sitting outside in the shade of the walnut tree. Later in the day I move to the shade of the maple, as the sun moves round. Tara the kitten sleep
Read more…Nangaku & Baso
There is a story about two monks, Nangaku and Baso. Baso has been practising meditation for ten years. Nangaku comes along.
Nangaku: What is the use of meditation?
Baso: To make a Buddha!
Nangaku picks up a tile. He starts to rub the t
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QUESTION: After a good few years of working hard towards personal improvement and continually tripping over myself, I'm struggling to see any real change in my propensity for being foolish. Given the depth of my defectiveness, how realistic is it to
I have been wondering for some time if/when turkey would invade part of Syria. The area occupied by Islamic State is Sunni Muslim, as is Turkey. The government on the coast backed by Russia is Shiite. It has been apparent for some time that Turkey ha
Read more…Today I helped a neighbour take a trailer load of rubbish to the tip and, in return, borrowed the trailer for a few hours in order to go into town and pick up some timber I had ordered. It is nice to have such mutual cooperation locally. It also gave
Read more…Here are another two poems by Saigyo. During his lifetime, the political situation gradually deteriorated until the most awful civil war broke out between the Taira and the Minamoto factions. Saigyo had himself been a warrior in his youth and had bec
Read more…This morning I took Tara to the vet in Ainay le Chateau. She is fairly used to being in the car now and sits on top of the seat backs so she can see out or stretches herself out along the back of my neck across my shoulders. We had to stay in the vet
Read more…Waka is the classical poetic form of Japan. Each poem is in the syllabic form 5-7-5-7-7. This is the form that was used by the famous Japanese poet Saigyo. He usually wrote a short prose introduction to explain the setting of the poem.
Here is a poem
Read more…QUESTION: In one of your recent posts, you made the statement: "12. Nonduality is a dualistic theory." I was hoping you could elaborate a bit more on this statement, or perhaps point to a sutra or previous work where this is discussed. It is definite
Read more…When we woke up this morning we were a community of seven, but by coffee time there were just Adam and I left. Elja, Naomi and two guests left for Netherlands, and another en route for Hawaii. It is quite a contrast and it feels a little strange havi
Read more…If Islamic State is destroyed, who will we pick as an enemy next? After all, if we don't have an enemy we shall not be able to keep all this 'security' in place and without that kind of coercion, how is the population going to be kept under control?
Read more…1. Buddhism only values 'self-awareness' insofar as it cultivates humility and compassion.
2. It is not necessary to create a 'self' before you abandon it.
3. It is not true that believing that all people are part of one another will necessarily make
Read more…Apremont sur Allier is beautiful even in the rain
Honen Shonin has been one of the ancestral teachers most important to me. I love his humanity. He talks about how he learnt Buddhism and learnt that pure contempation depended upon pure moral conduct and that wisdom depended on pure contemplation. he
Read more…When I moved here I was very small, but now that I'm getting a bit bigger I can do all sorts of things that were impossible before. My big project recently has been climbing. There are lots of things to climb on here and today I made a great step for
Read more…The storm is approaching from the East. It’s taking a long time to reach us and we all send our prayers out for rain to enliven the dusty landscape. It is a magnificent mélange of a dark angry wall and swirling, multi-layered white, lightning both ho
Read more…Everything slows down in August. Looking back, I see that the Daily is getting to be less than 'daily'. Today, after service, our party all wanted to go to the beach. The weather is exceedingly hot and has been so for some time now. I took a book on
Read more…QUESTION: Other traditions talk a lot about generating metta for our friends, acquaintances and enemies. How would we talk about this in the Pureland tradition?
SHORT ANSWER: Nembutsu is gratitude for Buddha's metta toward all beings.
LONGER ANSWER:
Read more…Medical
Yesterday I went to the doctor. I was not able to see my own as she was on holiday. The locum was quite thorough and evidently more worried about my heart than my lungs. She gave me a renewed prescription and a letter to cover if I need to go
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