April Fool's Day and a Friday - how inauspicious ! Nonetheless, it was a good day for us.
It was Modgala's first full day here. Very nice to have her with us. In the morning we all went to Oasis. This was our second time to hold our service/puja at O
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: Chapter 3
老 子: 「道 德 經」 : 第 三 章
Text:
不 尚 賢 ，
使 民 不 爭 ﹔
不 貴 難 得 之 貨 ，
使 民 不 為 盜 ﹔
不 見 可 欲 ，
使 民 心 不 亂 。
Not esteeming the clever and good, keeps the people from contention.
Not valuing what is hard to obtain keeps the people from t
Work Camp
Under the grey sky we have been working. Adam has continued with laying concrete slabs to create an area that will eventually be a base for another wooden shed. He got quite a bit done today and we have now run out of concrete slabs so will
Dharma
So far we have just talked about rupa and lakshana. the term dharma refers to things as they actually are - from their own side, as it were. So one’s father, from his own side, is not at all the person that the child is likely to see him as. T
Well, the big news today is that Elja's laptop has gone completely dead. We took it into town to the repair shop and had complicated discussions in a mix of Dutch, English and French and the upshot is that they will have a look at it and we will know
Read more…Buddhist Psychology
Buddhist psychology is the analysis of delusion. Where Buddhist practice is either an effort to reach enlightenment, a celebration of enlightenment or an expression of the enlightened state, Buddhist psychology is an examination o
Some snapshots of my day…
Waking up with a head full of Genjo Koan and Dogen. Getting up and typing on my laptop, still in pyjamas and dressing gown.
Eating breakfast around the kitchen table. Toasting Adam’s delicious home made bread, to eat with
Many Modes of Spirituality
The contemporary world is such a confusing place. We have available to us a greater plethora of ideas than perhaps any previous age. The spiritual treasures of the whole world and much of history are spilled out at our feet
The Amida Order has adopted the practice of celebrating the memory of three founding ancestors at this time of year. The persons so honoured are
Sensei Gisho Saiko, Reverend Gyomay Kubose, and Reverend Amrita Dhammika. See more information at the foo
Read more…Signs of Spring
The weather continues to improve. We are now eating outside in the evening as well as the morning and the sound of bees accompanies us now in addition to the great variety of bird calls. Each day we spot new species - today a chaffinc
Read more…Living Together
A community is a group of people living together. There might be many reasons why people might live together. Humans are moderately social animals. There are advantages in living together, but there are also problems. A group living t
QUESTION: Does the common Theravada and Tibetan Mahayana teaching of three levels of suffering, briefly:
The last part of Chapter Two is as follows
Therefore, the sage,
makes not acting his thing
and not speaking his religion,
makes myriad things, but wit
Departure
Josephine departed this morning. It has been a lovely visit. She stayed a day longer than she had originally planned and we were all sorry to see her go. We shall look forward to future visits.
Doctor
Elja and I went into town and called i
The I Ching is the book of change. So it is about the patterns of change and what we can learn from studying those patterns. The basic unit of the book is the hexagram. This diagram of six lines mutates in a variety of ways. Six is 1x2x3. In other wo
Read more…QUESTION: With regard to the recent bombings in Brussels, is it better to suffer or to inflict injustice? Is it better to be the victim or the perpetrator?
SHORT ANSWER: All parties need our compassion and understanding.
LONG ANSWER: This is a complex
It is good to pray. There are many ways and many meanings and I shall describe a few. When you organise your living quarters, make sure you include a place for holy things. When you arrange your garden, create places for contemplation that are inviti
Read more…It has been a sunny day here and we have been outside as much as possible, sometimes working, sometimes relaxing, often talking about the events in Brussels and the state of the world. Elja was gardening and cooking. Adam and Josephine did more work
Here at Eleusis we are enjoying lovely sunshine. Over breakfast we watched the robin and identified other birds as we ate our cereals under the walnut tree. At the moment, Elja is working in the front garden and Josephine and Adam are laying paving s
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天 下 皆 知 美 之 為 美
斯 惡 已 。
皆 知 善 之 為 善
斯 不 善 已 。
That everybody sees beauty as beautiful
is not beautiful.
That everybody sees goodness as good
is not good.
Old Chinese is very succinct and therefore, to an extent, ambiguous. Several other ways in
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