The Homeric hymn to Aphrodite is basically a story about how Zeus curbs Aphrodite by turning her own game upon herself. This hymn, therefore, is an episode in the “war of the sexes” in which the supreme male god, Zeus, evens the score with the suprem
Read more…The most interesting thing that I did today was to read an article called The Healing Response at Lourdes written collectively by Sarah Goldingay, who works in the Department of Drama at the University of Exeter, Paul Dieppe who is a medical speciali
Read more…It has been a day of errands. We had a problem with a computer and had to find a repair shop. In the end it was a matter of buying a new memory pack and having it installed. Computers are so much a part of our lives nowadays that it is difficult to r
Read more…We spent much of the day in a hospital in Germany. Elja had interviews and X-rays and made plans for her hip replacement operation which will now take place in the same hospital in February. She has been researching the pros and cons of different met
Read more…QUESTION: What is mondo?
SHORT ANSWER: Mondo is a ritual of formal question and answer between teacher and enquirer.
LONG ANSWER: Mondo is a word from old Japanese. Mon means "gate". Do means "way" or "path". Do in old Japanese is the same as Tao in
Read more…QUESTION: ”Buddhism is the belief that beings do get enlightened.Arhants and Buddhas do exist."How can we truly know that? I don't know that I've ever met an Arhant or a Buddha. Am I even capable of knowing if I have?
SHORT ANSWER: Seeing is believin
Read more…QUESTION: I am new to Pure Land Buddhism and would be grateful for information and references on the place within those traditions of The Three (or Four) Marks of Buddhism:
QUESTION: Dear Dharmavidya, I just read your essay on the first of the 12 Steps in Running Tide number 33. In it you say, "In Pure Land Buddhism we admit that we do not have the power to enlighten ourselves.In this there is a kind of despair and a ki
Read more…Teaching at the Zen Centre
Today I was teaching at Zen Centrum Den Bosch. The day was a mixture of meditation sessions and Dharma talks. In some of the meditation sessions we did zazen and in others we did chanting. We chanted invocation of Quan Shi
Today i was reading an article about Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist. Some of his most important work was done on the nature of black holes. Reading about his work led me to some interesting speculation.
Firstly, let us consider black holes. T
Truly Simple Faith
Today we travelled once again to Belgium and stayed with our good friends in Mons. It is a lengthy journey but we pass through quite pleasant countryside, have stops every so often and share the driving. It has been a day of rich d
This morning, over breakfast, we had a discussion of relationships and community and the idea of recreating tribes, in general, and, more specifically, around Eleusis, a tribe being, essentially, a network of relationships that cross a certain thresh
Read more…We had a quiet day of reading, writing and chatting, in part due to the continuance of the wet weather. It seems as though it has not stopped raining this year. There are occasional small outbursts of sunshine but quite quickly it clouds in again and
Read more…We are all aware that some objects have more power over us than others. If I ask you to describe a room that you are familiar with but are not in at this minute - your bedroom, say - then you will provide, probably, a fairly good description. If I th
Read more…My reorganisation of my quarters is progressing and it ia great joy to me personally to have the great majority of my books arranged where I can find and get at them. The downstairs room is now much more functional. There remains quite a bit to do up
Read more…I spent spent most of the day making this from an IKEA kit, assembling approx 450 items in a kind of three dimensional jigsaw. The picture instructions are pretty good explaining it all in about 50 steps and I only made one mistake along the way whic
Read more…QUESTION: Dear Dharmavidya, I've just read your writing on Contrition. As usual,you always know how to get right into my heart! Contrition is indeed born from honesty. Admitting our Bombu reality is so freeing. However, I'm caught in the Self-power/
Read more…Innumerable are sentient beings: I have harmed them all;
Uncountable are the holy precepts: I have broken them all;
Unfathomable are the Dharma teachings: I have offended them all;
Immeasurable are deluded passions: I have indulged them all;
Uncondit
A Reflective Season
Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. The day before was my birthday. The day before that was New Year’s Day. This is generally a rather emotional time of year for me and this year no exception. The middle of the cold part of the ye
