When i came down to make breakfast this morning i checked my mail and a former lover messaged me on Facebook. It was lovely to hear from here. I felt all soft inside. She told me that when we had last met, a while back, her feelings for me had been r
Read more…Included in the selections from the Parinirvana Sutta posted in the Buddhism Group is the following:
22. "Now there are eight kinds of assemblies, Ananda, that is to say, assemblies of nobles, brahmans, householders, ascetics, of the Four Great Kings
Read more…We had a day mostly devoted to Aphrodite. We took our new statue to be blessed in the Buddha hall and chanted a lot of nembutsu...
After a snack we went out to Aphrodite's sacred field, enjoying the warm sunshine and did some clearing toward th
Read more…EMOTIONS
It has been quite a day. Not easy to convey. We had a discussion in the early hours of the morning - one of those where you are not entirely sure what you are talking about but you know it is important. The past few days there has been someth
This is a space for the discussion of polyamory, a movement that is attracting attention, especially in America, that raises fundamental questions about conventional relationships and the norms and taboos that surround them. Some of us have been foll
Read more…Today we did our last shopping before Christmas. Shopping before Christmas. Shopping is certainly a pretty Pagan form of celebration, indulging in all the sensual attractions of food, colour, and goodies. We bought a tree and lights and have already
Read more…The Journey
We were up soon after 5am today. It was pouring with rain so packing the car was a bit of an operation, especially as we are carrying quite a quantity of stuff - much of it food, books and tools that we acquired in UK and elsewhere along
It is hard to believe we are so close to Christmas and the end of the year, the weather is so mild. Around the area where we are staying there are buttercups flowering - they should not be out until February. We have enjoyed our stay with Maitrisimha
Read more…Still in Den Haag. Amazing to find a statue of Quan Yin in the middle of all the gaity and commercialism of Christmas...
Travelled to The Hague to stay in the co-housing community where La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) members Maitrisimha and Annetta live.
I travelled to Oud Turnhout and stayed with La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) member Katrien. As usual we had some wonderful discussions about Buddhism, relationships, solitude and the stages of life.
Read more…QUESTIONS:
SHORT ANSWERS: 1. Natural progression; 2. Acknowle
Read more…Elja is visiting friends in Netherlands and I am visiting friends in Belgium. Bit by bit we are making our way back toward Eleusis, seeing several good friends along the way. The weather continues to be astoundingly mild. We are in mid-December and I
Read more… Watford
We spent last night at the home of Susthama and Damian in Watford. We had many good conversations and reflections upon the retreat in Malvern of the past week. Their daughter, Selena, age 3, had asked if I would take her to nursery school thi
I have pulled this up from the "Different languages" discussion because a member has been showing it to men and women and getting very different reactions. What do you make of it. If the woman asking a straigh-forward question and the man being evasi
Read more…It is traditional in Far Eastern Buddhism to hold a retreat at the beginning of December and in our school this retreat includes a period of extended chanting, so, today, we spent twelve hours chanting the nembutsu invocation of Amitabha Buddha. We a
QUESTION: What does Aphrodite mean to you personally?
SHORT ANSWER: Love and freedom.
LONG ANSWER: I have a strong personal connection because of having spent much of my childhood in Cyprus which is the island of Aphrodite. In the ancient world she h
