There is a famous carving in wood of Amida Tathagata glancing back. This glancing back statue is very famous. The expression on the face of the Buddha as he looks back is both tender and dignified, poised yet concerned.
In the year 1082,
Read more…In Germany this is called hugelkultur. You can look it up on the web. It is a way of making a garden bed that is relatively drought resistant, by burying wood. The wood rots and becomes a sponge which retains water. It can be done on a big scale if y
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TEXT
道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物。
万物负阴而抱阳，
冲气以為和。
人之所恶，唯孤、寡、不谷，
而王公以為称。
故物或损之而益，
或益之而损。
人之所教，
我亦教之。
强梁者不得其死，
吾将以為教父。
TRANSLATION
Tao give rise to one, one gives rise to two, two gives rise to three, three gives rise to a multitude.
Everyone puts yin behind and embr
Read more…The term paravritti often gets translated by something that sounds rather grand such as a turning around in the seat of consciousness. This kind of translation is not wrong and I have used it myself, but I have to admit that it probably g
Read more…[<-Part 1]
Faith (shraddha) arises in the condition of dukkha, says Buddha in the Nidana Vagga in the Samyuta Nikaya. Dukkha is the circumstance of our being sensitive to living in a world of suffering, a world of birth and death. If we were not sent
Read more…This morning I worked in the forest. I felled a dead tree and gathered wood. Some of this will go for firewood and some will be buried in my next wood-heap garden bed (a small scale version of hugelkultur that I started doing last year and found to b
Read more…DON'T DRIFT INTO DISASTER
This is the first of a series of short essays in which I shall comment on the term paravritti which plays an important role in many Buddhist texts. The word is very close in meaning to “enlightenment”, but with distinctive i
Read more…PRAISE
In the Acchariya-abbhuta Sutta, the monks are discussing how wonderful the Buddha is when he comes into the hall, interrupting their chatter. He asks what they have been talking about and they tell him that they have been discussing his marvel
Read more…SIX VIJÑANA MIND MODEL
One of the ways to understand how conceptions of psychology have changed since the time of the Buddha is by looking at how the model of the mind has elaborated. In the earliest scriptures, the Buddha talks in terms of six vijñan
Zen is
“a special transmission outside the scriptures,
not founded upon words and letters.
pointing directly to the heart,
seeing true nature, become buddha”
教外別傳 jiào wài bié zhuàn
不立文字 bú lì wén zìdo
直指人心 zhí zhĭ rén xīn
見性成佛 jiàn xìng chéng f
1. The correct attitude is to be willing to do whatever the Dharma requires, in whatever realm, in whatever aeon. Enlightenment means to see clearly what needs to be done. It is to walk the eightfold path and to know what that means. Yet, as bombu be
A finger pointing at the sky.
Do you know the reason why?
Do you want to live or die?
Do you hear the people cry?
When they come to sing “Hallelujah!”,
riding in the voodoo Sin Street car,
waves come crashing on the harbour bar,
you’ll be swinging on the P
Buddhism praises awareness, especially awareness of presently arisen states. There is a value in being aware of what is arising, being aware of what is persisting, what is fading away. Thus I might notice that a feeling of sadness is arising, or tha
Read more…I have just come back from the conference of Buddhist teachers in Europe. While I was there I heard much discussion about secularisation and how it is necessary to secularise the Dharma in order to make it palatable to modern people. Personally, I am
Read more…QUESTION: What is shunyata?
SHORT ANSWER: Sunyata is the completion of learning
LONGER ANSWER: The important thing is to have the Dharma in your heart. How does this come about? There could be a million different ways. Perhaps something happens in li
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Amida Shu is a form of Pureland Buddhism. It derives from a tradition of Buddhist teaching that started in India, matured in China and flowered in Japan. In all probability to derives mostly from teachings that Buddha gave to lay people. There is, th
When I originally learnt psychotherapy, psychoanalysis was the dominant force and its arch foe was behaviourism. Freud had claimed to offer the first scientific psychology. The behaviourists came along with what they claimed was really scientific. H
There is a good deal of concern these days that psychotherapy should be “evidence based”. This has led to a neglect of, for instance, psychoanalysis. I cannot help thinking that this development is a mistake. When I think of the kind of psychotherapy
Read more…Thinking about psychotherapy I notice that there is an important distinction to be made about two different viewpoints or perspectives. Similar comments can be made about spiritual practice and, no doubt, some other domains of human knowledge. I call
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