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
Read more…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
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