Cherry Blossom
I have recently moved to an idyllic house in France and although the winter has been very cold, the spring has come like a fanfare. My garden is full of blossom on the many fruit trees and the woodlands around … Continue reading →
Lay Practice
Working meditation
The next thing on the retreat schedule is working meditation, and I’ve been asked to give you a talk as an introduction to this, why we do it, why it’s important, how to do it… With practice we can bring … Continue reading →
King’s Day
It was somewhere towards the end of the afternoon of King’s Day. We were in Amsterdam selling old clothes on the street market to get some extra money for our plan of traveling the world… The boy next to us … Continue reading →
Confusion: cures and causes
When I was the Prior at the Eugene Buddhist Priory several people asked me about a sense of confusion regarding their meditation practice. These are some thoughts I had at the time, revised slightly for inclusion in this issue of … Continue reading →
Imperfect grief
I recently went to buy a new rug for my flat. This flat is the home that I shared with Jan, my wife of thirty-five years, until her recent death after a long illness. As part of the process of … Continue reading →
Fish and ball
Many years ago, at the Shasta Abbey Gift Shop, I saw a fish with a ball in its throat. It was a pendant one could wear around one’s neck. I thought, “Why would anyone want one of these? Recently a … Continue reading →
Let’s talk a bit about complaining
The last few months I have been observing complaining—my complaining and the complaining of others. I recently came across the website www.willbowen.com. This is the website of Rev. Will Bowen, a Christian minister in Kansas City, Missouri, who — as … Continue reading →
Appreciation
What is it like when we wake in the morning? Before our brain wakes up and remembers what we have to do that day, there is a space — of being you could say; which is just an appreciation: we … Continue reading →
Tired
I’m tired. Not all the time, but enough so that I can not depend on not being tired. There are days when it seems relentless, and other hours where I think it is all in my head. The strange thing … Continue reading →
When the student is ready the teacher appears
Once there was a Bodhisattva by the name of Dipankara, who was a deep meditator and a very advanced teacher, much loved by people. He lived in India and he traveled around in the Tibetan area with a man to … Continue reading →
