We have had a couple of wet days. A good time for writing and we have all three been doing it, some of which has appeared on the site. I particularly enjoyed delving into the story of the Pureland sage, Ippen, once again - so many important spiritual
Read more…This is a group for sharing information, stories and lore about plants, including their medicinal, magical, sacred, and mythical properties, histories, poetry and charm.
Read more…QUESTION: I watched a TV programme recently that featured a rape. it really affected me and one thing that struck me was how would it be for someone who has faith in Pureland to contemplate that the perpetrator of violence against them could also ent
Read more…Today has felt like the first spring day. We have had periods of warm sunshine and it has been he first day of the year in which we have had our coffee break outdoors and have not lit a fire in our bedroom. The warmer weather has brought new activity
Read more…Today Damian, Susthama, Selena and Dorian left after breakfast to make the journey back to their home in Watford in England. They are in the process of buying a new apartment and need to be in UK in order to handle the legal and financial tasks. Eleu
Read more…In today’s teaching I would like to look critically at some of the principles, often taken as self-evident, that underpin much of our thinking about ethics.
There is, for instance, the so called golden rule, treat others as you would yourself be trea
Read more…Today we woke up to snow, just a sprinkling. It looked very pretty. The day continued mostly rather cold. Later we had rain and then again in the evening more snow.
Between these various showers I managed to get out and get a bit of exercise for thre
QUESTION: A sangha member recently asked, 'if Honen's teachings are so simple, why are our services so complicated?' As the sangha member noticed, our services have lots of words, bells in the right places, and ritual. How does this fit with the simp
Read more…A question that is of perennial concern is that of whether world peace is possible and whether real peace is sustainable. Many utopians have advanced ideas about better ways of organising society or at least establishing limited alternative communiti
Read more…Days here are full of life. This morning the nurse arrived to take a sample of my blood while we were all sitting round having breakfast. I'm looking forward to getting back the lab result because this will tell something about what difference it has
Read more…DAVID:
Full House
Eleusis is full. Susthama, Damian and their two chilren, Selena and Dorian have joined us so the place is a-buzz with activity and little voices. Together we have done a certain amount of reorganisation of rooms and spaces. We are g
This morning first thing was bright and clear and Elja got me to go out for a walk to collect some daffodils from the area of the Eirene shrine. Then we walked back and I was feeling OK so we went on to visit the Demeter and Artemis shrines as well,
Read more…I measure progress by what I can do. Today I do better than yesterday by walking round the house twice, instead of once, and find great satisfaction in doing a small task in the garden, cutting back a bramble that was encroaching on the mint bed -
Read more…It has been quite a day of ups and downs. Last night I was allowed to sleep at home but had to be in the hospital for injections, blood tests and oxygen treatment first thing this morning so we were up at a good hour and on the road to St Amand again
Read more…In the morning I had a couple of turns of vertigo after slight effort and realised i must be worse. I went back to bed and slept all morning. Elja wanted to get me to a doctor. In due course, Annette arrived. She agreed and the two of them whisked me
Read more…Seven Factors of Enlightenment
In the morning after breakfast we did a lesson on the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in relation to the opening of Summary of Faith and Practice, especially the phrase "letting go of sophistication and all forms of cleve
Illness
Today I really had to admit that something is definitely wrong. I have lost my strength. Climbing a short flight of steps leaves me exhausted and faint. I do not seem to have any other major symptoms. It seems to have come on rather suddenly.
We got a day ahead of our usual routine by doing the washing this morning. After arriving home to a freezing cold house yesterday we were pleasantly greeted by sunshine this morning. Having been travelling we had quite an accumulation of washing to d
Read more…Today we are visiting friends in the south of Netherlands. there is snow on the ground. When there is frozen snow the morning sunshine is brighter than usual. We took a short walk into town and on the way stopped to build a snowman. We were aiming to
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