This morning I was here alone. I completed various jobs making the place welcoming. Cut the grass around the rose garden. Swept out our new meeting area in the big barn and put up a Buddhist flag. Did a lot of washing. It was a hot day, so I was able
Read more…Faith evidently plays a significant part in psychotherapy. Whatever school one follows, the 'therapeutic alliance' is important. In some forms of therapy it is virtully the be-al-and-end-all of the work. Such an alliance rests upon the faith that the
Read more…Today temperatures were up in the thirties. A sudden burst of heat. I wonder if we shall have more. I was doing physical work most of the day and when I came in I had a good thirst.
A friend came by and we discussed the imminent referendum which the
Read more…I asked the I Ching to tell me the way to end war and achieve peace. The answer came as hexagram 25. There were no moving lines, so this was a quite definite and timeless response from the oracle.
Hexagram 25 is Wu Wang which means Innocence. It con
The longest day - mid-summer on some counts! ... and full moon to boot.
I am here alone at the moment, which is another kind of bliss.
Second breakfast...
I took it outside. Warm yet fresh after rain...
Summer's day. Birds singing after rain.
Nothin
In the teaching yesterday we looked at the emoticon image for peace, being a dove with an olive sprig in its beak. In ancient Greek mythology, the dove and the olive branch were attributes of Eirene the goddess of peace. The olive was also associated
Read more…This morning Annette came to our Sunday service and afterwards helped us with our phone connection problem with some success - many thanks!! We now have a working phone connection again. Then, later, continuing my spring clean, moving a heap of thing
Read more…Anshin is a Japanese word, often translated as 'settled faith' as I explained in Anshin Part One yesterday. It is a particularly important term in Pureland Buddhism. However, the theme is of universal implication and relevance.
Bringing Peace to the
Read more…I have been reading Yeats...
I am haunted by numberless islands, and many a Dana-an shore,
Where Time would surely forget us, and Sorrow come near us no more,
So far from the rose and the lily and fret of the flame would we be,
Were we only white bir
Today I put the hammock up, but it has not stopped the rain from falling. We hang it between two trees behind the house. The larger of the two is our largest walnut tree. Although we take the hammock inside during the winter it is impossible to take
Read more…Life without Wifi
We have had nearly a week without internet here at La Ville au Roi (Eleusis). Although we missed being able to communicate with all our friends in the usual way, it has been rather nice to have this little retreat. Initially we thou
Read more…I would like today to respond to Sujatin's teaching of yesterday on Gratitude. To respond to one another is itself and expression of gratitude and is very important in Buddhism. The practice of 'mondo' - 'question and answer' or, more literally 'gate
Read more…Today I was outdoors most of the day and my major achievement was to weed the strawberry patch. Disentangling strawberry plants from the little creeper that grows among them, twining itself around their stems, is quite a fiddly task. I also sent a la
Read more…QUESTION: Is Buddhism a religion or a psychology?
SHORT ANSWER: Both and more, but religion firstly.
LONG ANSWER: Buddhism is first and foremost a religion, and as such it has given rise to culture and civilisation, including systems of education,
Last night we had a beautiful sky. After the sunset the pale blue was banded with swathes of pink. The calm of evening held one like a tender embrace.
This morning we went to market in Sancoins. I am feeling swamped by nostalgia. I’m sure that this is
Today
- workmen came and cleaned one of our roofs.
- I tinkered with the final chapter of my Dogen book. I am not happy with it yet. More thought required.
- wrote an answer in Questions in the Sand about Secondary Faculties. Not a gripping title, bu
Read more…QUESTION: My understanding of pure land is that we are all bombu and therefore use the nambutsu as its easy for us to understand. To practice more seems like we going against this principle by use of meditation or the use of other intellectual means.
Read more…It has been really hot today. The birds are singing. The roses are blooming. The grass has grown. Having completed one stage of my woodwork project and needing in any case to reorganise the downstairs of the barn before I can work overhead on the oth
Read more…QUESTION: I have been at an event this weekend led by a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. The teacher taught about the four immeasurables, loving kindness, compassion and tonglen meditation. Today she is teaching about lojong mind training. I found some o
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This is a poem I write about my stay at La Ville au Roi,
NIGHT IN THE SHEEP HOUSE
First night in the sheep house
candle blown out,
I lie awake listening
to the walls
making no sound.
Animal antecedents are
embedded in this stone.
I feel them brea