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
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
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
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,
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 -
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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