Weather
'Orage' is the French word for a storm, especially the kind of rather dramatic, short, thunder and lightning storms that occur during high pressure periods in summer, punctuating the build up of' la grand challeur' (the big heat) that goes on
Silver sunlight at dawn filtering through the walnut tree makes the washing line into a stream of colourful flags. The settee in the garden is so French. The little cat is already twice the size of when she arrived and her then blue eyes are now near
Read more…While doing quite a lot of physical work in the course of the day, my mind has been much occupied with the political developments. This is both intellectual and emotional. Like many others I feel a profound sadness at the Brexit vote and each day we
Read more…These are times of important political changes that also have big economic implications. Sometimes it seems that 'being spiritual' implies distancing oneself from current affairs. One aims to rise above such things. It is certainly true that a spirit
Read more…On Wednesday we often go to market in Sancoins, the nearest market town. This week I stayed home for the morning and most of the group went to town. While there they picked up things for a picnic and in the afternoon we all went to St Bonnet, a pictu
Read more…I have been back at Eleusis nearly two weeks. I am very happy to be home again. When I arrived it was the beginning of the Anshin Retreat. It was an intensive week and gave me an opportunity to reconnect with the Amida Sangha.
I am very happy that w
It was a sunny day here and we all got on with a variety of practical tasks - liming walls, cutting grass, going shopping, taking departing visitors to the railway station. By the end of the day we were six people here looking forward to a fairly qui
Read more…It has been a gentle day. In the morning Elja and I took Maitrisimha and Annetta to the station to catch their train north. We stayed in town long enough to have a coffee at a cafre. We had taken Tara, as we are trying to get her used to car travel.
Read more…Today we all went to the summer open day at Oasis. There was a fine Dharma talk by Zen teacher Henri Duran from Moulins. He used the name of the centre "Oasis de Longue Vie" as the asis of an exposition of basic Zen Buddhist principles. There were th
Read more…Retreat Week
The past week we have been in a retreat focussed on the theme of Anshin - settled faith & peaceful mind. We have enjoyed being a Dharma community of eleven people. There is plenty elsewhere on the site about the theme.
This morning we al
Read more…It seems that xenophobia is currently a rising issue. Countries in parts of south east Europe have erected barriers to stop foreigners from the Middle east war zone entering their countries as refugees. Britain has voted for 'Brexit' and it seems tha
Read more…When you are very small and the world is very big and new...
you have to investigate everything carefully...
Here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) we are already on the third day of our Anshin Retreat. There has not been time to write Dailies or Daily teachings, but my talks here are being filmed and will appear eventually. Apart from the activities of the retr
Read more…This weekend has been a special meeting of the Amida Order here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis). during the proceedings there has been a ceremony marking Elja's admission into postulancy which is a stage in her career within the Order. It was a moving a
Read more…It has been a big day for Tara exploring, finding out how to climb onto the table, attempt the stairs, fight with human feet and even go for as trip in the car.
all of which means that one needs a lot of dream time to process it all
In Britain, the decision to leave the EU has been taken in what until now would normally be regarded as an unconstitutional way, namely by referendum. A slight majority of the population has over-rules the majority of MPs. This, in effect, means that
Read more…Well, it started with the shock of learning that Britain had voted to leave the EU. I really felt the shock of it. Being so often out of kilter with my fellow countrymen I perhaps shoudl have known, but the reality is something else.
Then we had a me
Read more…When I originally posted this post as a blog, I was expecting that Britain would vote to remain in the EU. However, now that I have been wrong about that we are definitely entering more "interesting times" to quote the Chinese curse.
I expect that t
