The Book of Jonah (referred to in the Daily of yesterday) is one of the shortest in the Old Testament - just four chapters. It tells the tale of a man who is given a job to do by his god but does not want to do it. It is therefore about avoiding one’
Read more…QUESTION: Can we think of Amida as mother?
SHORT ANSWER: Yes
LONGER ANSWER: Buddhas can appear in whatever form is necessary to save sentient beings, so can certainly appear as mother. However, one has to be careful in designing one's own Buddha beca
Read more…道 可 道 ， 非 常 道 。
名 可 名 ， 非 常 名 。
The tao that you can tao is not the enduring Tao
Names that you can name are not the enduring Name
無 名 天 地 之 始
有 名 萬 物 之 母 。
Without name is the origin of Heaven and Earth
Having names is the mother of the myriad thi
This morning we had a discussion about the passage in the Bible in Genesis chapter 11 which is the story of the Tower of Babel. The story is simple enough. The people of the Earth gather and meet in harmony and set to work to build a city and a tower
Read more…Some Thoughts Stimulated by reading Jacob L Moreno
Stage
The stage is open on every side. Above it is the spirit of creativity that may descend upon us at any time. Below is the bottomless pit of shadows from which we may winch up, as from a well, th
The I Ching is one of the oldest books in the world. It is a book of divination that has been used throughout Chinese history. It is important to Taoists and Confucians especially. The book embodies a traditional wisdom and has an uncanny ability to
Read more…Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu is regarded as the founder of Taoism. According to tradition, he was an older contemporary of Confucius, and, perhaps, also of Buddha. Lao Tzu and Confucius are considered the two greatest sages of China and tit is recorded that they m
When Siddhartha Gotama became enlightened and so became Shakyamuni Buddha what he realised was dependent origination, pratitya samutpada. Consequently, the precise meaning of dependent origination has been a subject of debate throughout Buddhist hist
Read more…QUESTION: I am confused about the location of the Pure Land in time. In some things I read, it seems to be located in the future, after death, when one "goes to" the Pure Land to become fully enlightened (and then returns to serve all sentient being
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